It also should be shut down, as should most liberal arts colleges these days.

I am picking on Hamline because it has been in the news the past few days. An Art History instructor was essentially fired for including an artwork depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a section covering Islamic art. The painting in question was from medieval times and is regarded as one of the great examples of medieval Islamic art.

“The image in question is a 14th century painting included in a manuscript commissioned by a Sunni Muslim king in Iran and that it forms part of a cycle of illustrations narrating and commemorating Muhammad’s prophecy that is considered by art historians to be “a global artistic masterpiece.” The professor gave students both written and verbal notifications that the image would be shown.”

Hamline University responded to a student complaint about this incident by determining that the incident was Islamophobic and a firing offense.

“the university’s associate vice president of inclusive excellence (AVPIE) declared the classroom exercise “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic.”

First of all, before we get to the absurdities involved in this case (of which there are many), no institution should ever have an administrative position labeled “Associate Vice President of Inclusive Excellence.” Students, alumni, and taxpayers are paying for this 6 figure position, plus whatever support staff they require. If I weren’t arguing that Hamline should be outright closed I would at least argue that half the Deans should be fired immediately, and all but one of the 8 Vice Presidents should be let go.

Now, to the absurdities involved in the case:

1. The professor was teaching Art History, and the artwork in question was indisputably of artistic merit, clearly not Islamophobic, and is well regarded as “a global artistic masterpiece.” It was produced by an Islamic artist in service of praising Islam, and while it offends some (hardly all) Muslims to view images of the Prophet, students were given the option to opt out. The “Associate VP for Inclusive Excellence” is clearly an uneducated dunce and should be let go for that reason alone.
2. The decision to slander the instructor as an Islamophobe is unconscionable. That is a career death sentence, especially for an Instructor who has no permanent position. Academia has a two-tier, highly aristocratic system of employment where well paid tenured professors are pampered and almost immune from criticism while untenured, poorly paid instructors to the majority of the work for peanuts and are hung out to dry like this in order to appease the woke gods.
3. Almost nobody inside the University has stood up for academic freedom, despite a firestorm of criticism from both Left and centrist critics.  PEN America, an organization of writers who lean Left, have come out foursquare in favor of the instructor, as has FIRE (which leans right, mostly). In fact, the student newspaper originally published a letter defending the instructor from a Hamline Religion Professor–and they removed it because they deemed it “harmful.” These university administrators and students are authorities on both art and religion in a way that Art History and Religion professors are not. Because woke.

Which gets me to the absurdity that got me totally worked up: what Hamline has wrought through its education. As unjust as this incident is and as awful as it makes Hamline look, what I cannot get past is the editorial the Hamline Oracle (the student newspaper) wrote in apologizing for printing a letter from one of their professors. Not only did they apologize for letting a professor instruct them on academic matters, but also on the controversy itself. Everybody involved is actually wrong about the portrayal of Muhammed in Islamic art (it has been quite common in certain historical periods and Islamic sects), yet none of them care.

Instead, the students print this drivel:

The Oracle is Hamline’s independent, student-run newspaper. One of our core tenets, to minimize harm, exists for us to hold ourselves accountable for the way our news affects the lives of individual students, and the Hamline community and student body as a whole. Those in our community have expressed that a letter we published has caused them harm. We have decided, as an editorial board, to take it down.

In no way are any of us on this staff or on the Editorial Board experts about journalism or trauma. We are, however, dedicated to actively supporting, platforming and listening to the experiences and voices of members of our community.

We are a student publication that is here to provide a space to elevate the voices of students. Our work is of no value if at any time our publication is participating in furthering harm to members of our community.

Our website acts as a space to widely share information and as a digital archive. We believe that what we publish is a matter of public record that reflects and includes the viewpoints of our community that creates space for having conversations in the open that would otherwise be left in private. We hope these conversations can lead to transparency and accountability. However, our publication will not participate in conversations where a person must defend their lived experience and trauma as topics of discussion or debate.

What drivel. And this is the sort of drivel that only results from an educational environment that teaches it. The attitudes were prepared in the elementary and secondary schools, but only a college education can teach students to be so sophisticatedly stupid and absurd. The buzzwords, the peculiar illogic, the embrace of ignorance is all peculiar to the academic environment only found in colleges and universities.

Harm. Trauma. Lived experiences. “Include all the viewpoints” while excluding any we don’t like. The intentionally tortured academic writing style. It is the end result of an educational process that must be rooted out and destroyed.

You would think that justice would be served by the rehiring the instructor who was fired, but that would be wrong. Justice for the students would be served by closing down Hamline and giving each of them a scholarship to a proper educational institution like Hillsdale. Or better yet, to a trade school where they can learn skills that would serve both them and society far better than creating the moral monsters they are becoming.

Because the type of people they are becoming is monstrous. They are destroying somebody for doing their job properly, and close their ears to the knowledge that would help them see that it is they who are wrong about the facts and the values in this case. Portrayals of the Prophet are now commonly, but not universally believed to be blasphemous, but a proper historical understanding would show that this has not always been the case everywhere and always among Muslims. Hence this particular piece of important art.

Not one of these students would object to “Piss Christ” or any other piece of artwork that offends anybody from Christendom, no matter how much “trauma” it might cause.

Hamline is both turning these students’ minds to mush and indoctrinating them into a cult. Hamline is hardly unique in this, but razing the University would be a fine start to cleaning up the mess.

As a product of and once instructor in a Liberal Arts college it pains me no end to argue this. I still believe in the value of the liberal arts, but they hardly exist any more in academia. They have been replaced by zombies repeating harmful nostrums and corrupting the young. The whole structure of liberal arts and woke administration in colleges need to be replaced with something resembling a college education from decades ago.

Secondary school students a hundred years ago were often better educated than anything we see in the products of colleges today. We need to find a core group of intellectual curious and truly diverse professors to rebuild what has been lost. The sciences, I hope, can be saved if we get rid of the DEI cult and reform the grant process.

But the liberal arts and social sciences are gone. Raze them to the ground and start over.