Once news had spread that University of Missouri President Tom Wolfe had stepped down in the face of student protests, the obvious question was, which university would be next? Yale seems the obvious choice, as racial tensions on campus have worsened since an administrator’s email encouraged students not to be offended by but to tolerate and talk about insensitive Halloween costumes.

That email led to an op-ed in the school newspaper where a student alleged that colleagues were losing sleep, missing classes, skipping meals and having breakdowns in response, and the school was failing in its responsibility to “take care of” them.

It didn’t take long for the Ivy League scholars to form a plan: they would hold a “March of Resilience” in support of each other.

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Monday’s demonstrations reached beyond the campus to alumni as well, some of whom were inspired to set up a crowdfunding effort under the name Concerned Yale Alumni to send a thousand copies of Allan Bloom’s “Closing of the American Mind” to administrators, faculty, and students.

The pitch goes:

If you are concerned about the future of the American university, in New Haven or elsewhere, please donate as many copies of “The Closing of the American Mind” as you can afford.

The classic tome on liberal education and the threats to free thought faced by American campuses will be sent en masse to President Salovey, Dean Holloway, the masters of each residential college (with the notable and obvious exception of Silliman, which master stood alone in defending free thought), faculty, and students.

It’s not an autobiography at all; better send him the first copy.

 

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