Misrule of Law

For all I know, the political climate at the University of Texas at Austin is no better or no worse than at any other major university, but since I am a UT alumnus and live in Austin, I pay closer attention to UT. Many readers would assume that Texas, being a conservative state, would be immune to leftist posturing at its flagship state university, but sadly, UT’s administrators and faculty seem to be striving for Ivy League status as a caricature of political correctness run amok. I have previously reported (e.g., hereand here) on UT’s unfortunate tendency to mimic the worst trends in higher education: administrative bloat, slavish devotion to “diversity,” race-conscious affirmative action, and one-sided regulation of campus speech to suppress disfavored opinions.

In this post, I will contrast two recent student protests at UT, and — more importantly — the administration’s wildly disparate responses to them. The first occurred at the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year, when a group of UT students staged an event on campus to express their disagreement with a recently enacted state law that allows licensed gun owners (aged 21 and older) to carry concealed handguns in most places on public university campuses, including classrooms. Some UT students (and faculty) felt that allowing firearms on campus, and particularly in classrooms, created a safety threat, even though similar laws have not led to incidents of violence in other states. The event, dubbed “Cocks Not Glocks,” entailed the distribution on campus of more than 5,000 free dildos to UT students so the students could brandish them or attach them to their backpacks while walking to and attending class. The stated goal was to highlight what gun opponents felt was the absurdity of permitting firearms on campus but not the public display of sex toys (which were donated by “erotic boutiques,” such as Larry Flynt’s Hustler Hollywood).