The political correctness movement at liberal arts colleges has reached a new and ironic high, with professors at the University of Virginia, founded by former President Thomas Jefferson, calling for a ban on Jefferson’s words.
After the college president quoted Jefferson in a post-election note, professors hit the author of the Declaration of Independence for “atrocities” against slaves and said he was the worst model to quote.
Just after the election, according to the Daily Cavalier, the school newspaper, President Teresa Sullivan emailed a note calling on students to create their own future.
“Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend that University of Virginia students ‘are not of ordinary significance only: they are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes,'” Sullivan wrote. “I encourage today’s U.Va. students to embrace that responsibility.”
Liberal professors didn’t want to hear it.
Some 469 professors and students signed a letter to Sullivan that said since Jefferson was a slave owner, he shouldn’t be quoted at the school he started.
“We would like for our administration to understand that although some members of this community may have come to this university because of Thomas Jefferson’s legacy, others of us came here in spite of it,” the letter read. “For many of us, the inclusion of Jefferson quotations in these e-mails undermines the message of unity, equality and civility that you are attempting to convey.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
