School Daze

The Missus had an amusing chat with a friend at church yesterday. The friend's son is off at The People's Glorious Soviet of Middletown, my old alma mater. And while these people are fairly typical Northern Virginia Lexus Liberals and the kid considered himself to be a cosciencious young Progressive coming up through prep school, he was astounded to find himself considered to be a conservative once he got to campus.

Among other things, the kid reports that West College (or "WestCo"), my old residential stomping ground and the veritable epicenter of campus radical politics, has voted to designate itself a "clothing optional" environment. I don't know when this happened, as it's the sort of thing that tends not to make it into the alumni magazine, but I may say that it doesn't surprise me in the least. (I also wouldn't be surprised if they picked up the idea from Brown, whom we were always aping in my time.) And if the stooodents who live there now are anything like the ones in residence back in my day (self included), my first reaction is "Ewwwww." Of course, one couldn't say such a thing out loud there, as one immediately would be branded a "lookist" or some other politically incorrect pariah. I just hope that the kids at least put out some towels before they sit down. (FWIW, the friend's son also reports that the Administration has got sick and tired of WestCo and its antics. What they plan to do, I can't imagine. They were pretty gutless in my time.)

Ha, ha, ha. I feel your pain, kid. And I say so as one of the very few genuine conservatives to have put in four years at the dear old col. I wound up there at first simply because I got in, because the place still had an outstanding academic reputation and because I (admittedly) didn't really research the social atmosphere. That I stayed was as much a function of my own eccentricity as anything else: the school ballyhoos itself as "Diversity University", so by golly, I was going to call 'em on it. It was hard sometimes, but it was also fun.

The Missus asked me what I would do if I were still there and whether I would stay put in WestCo. After thinking about if for a minute, I said yes, I probably would. Furthermore, I'd probably start wearing a tie every day just to show them what I thought of them.

All the same, I'm certainly not planning on blowing close to 50 Grand a year to send any of the Llama-ettes there.