Something rare happened in the world of campus controversies this week— a university handled the dust-up over a controversial speaker perfectly.
Nella Gray Barkley, an alumna of the small, all-female Sweet Briar College in Virginia, used her platform as the school’s commencement speaker last Saturday to make some gentle anti-feminist quips. Inside Higher reported that Barkley’s speech “stunned many attendees, who found it sexist and demeaning to the Me Too movement and feminism.” Lauren Cooley has more in the Washington Examiner here.
While her remarks were maybe reflective of generational differences, and out of place for the occasion, it’s somewhat amusing that Barkley’s remarks left so many attendees “stunned.” Her worst offenses seem to have been expressing “little patience with the woman who arrives breathlessly at her boss’s hotel room for a so-called conference,” saying it’s “only natural for men from Mars to follow the shortest skirt in the room,” and delivering the line, “I’m no raging feminist. I actually love men.” Stunning indeed.
The real story for me is how Sweet Briar responded to complaints.
In an email to new graduates, college president Meredith Woo said Barkley “meant to provoke and start a conversation that will get you thinking. She succeeded.”
“Even as I know the deep emotional reaction some of you may have had to her message, I would urge you to remember that she is a trail blazer, who has coached people at various points of their career as they navigate the complex terrain that we call life,” Woo wrote.
I’m excerpting another portion of Woo’s email because it managed to strike a pitch-perfect tone in a difficult situation, an achievement not often realized by campus administrators.
According to Inside Higher Ed, Woo added, “You don’t have to accept or refuse her perspective — that is not the point — but I ask you to think about it. That’s what you have earned as [an] alumna of Sweet Briar – a woman with an ability to listen, cogitate, and take from it what you wish, and get on with your life.”
Students were reportedly still rankled that Woo “didn’t dispute some of the statements in the speech.” Pressed further by Inside Higher Ed, the college doubled down, saying in a statement, “Sweet Briar College has always been an institution that encourages discussion on subjects of profound importance for our women and our society. We hold this truth to be unassailable: Every woman has dominion over her physical self and must be free from coercion, pressure or influence.”
Woo did a few key things right— not dismissing the disgruntled students as PC lightweights, but taking the time to substantively address their complaints; insisting on the value of listening to and considering the perspectives of credible people with whom you just happen to disagree; making a serious and unabashed effort to highlight the intellectual contribution Barkley offered, but stopping short of endorsing it; not apologizing or caving to pressure. Her encouragement that students “listen, cogitate, and take from it what you wish, and get on with your life,” was a nice touch as well. Campus protesters have a tendency to dwell on the unimportant.
None of this is especially easy for administrators to do, and principled responses are made even harder for colleges to stand by under the media microscope. All things considered, Sweet Briar sent its new graduates into the world with a great final lesson.
