Cato Institute Senior Fellow Walter Olson penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal this week in which he mused on whether or not Yale University would accept an applicant who protested in favor of Second Amendment rights.
Recently, universities around the country have been publishing statements to assure applicants that their chance of admission would not be harmed if they were to be disciplined by their high school for engaging in a pro-gun control walkout protest. The statements led Walter Olson to pose an interesting question: would these universities offer applicants the same protection had they instead been punished for conservative activism?
Suppose a student had been deeply influenced by Friedrich Hayek’s “The Mirage of Social Justice.” After reading it, she had concluded social justice does not offer a particularly useful “take” on the moral problems of society, and that other standards—justice toward individuals, protection of personal rights, peace and nonaggression, neutral and impartial application of law—are better.Now suppose she put that in her Yale application, knowing that screeners would be looking for some indication she was “versed in social justice.” Would it affect her chances of making the cut?
Olson laid out these thoughts in a column published this week in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Yale and the Puritanism of ‘Social Justice.” Olson was linking Yale’s Puritan roots to its present-day puritanical insistence on “social justice” politics.
Olson, an alumnus of Yale himself, highlighted a passage on the Yale University admission page that explicitly admits that the university prefers applicants who are “versed” in social justice issues.
“For those students who come to Yale, we expect them to be versed in issues of social justice,” the post reads. “We encourage them to be vocal when they see an opportunity for change in our institution and in the world. We value student voices on campus and we encourage discourse and action. To punish our applicants for doing just that would go against the very beliefs that make Yale such a special place to study.”
Is it becoming increasingly obvious that non-progressive students aren’t desired by university admissions offices?
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