I earned a Bachelor of Arts from Washington & Lee University, an elite - and perhaps elitist - liberal arts school located in Lexington, Virginia. W&L is unique among its peer set of top liberal arts colleges in a few ways: W&L is the only one among the group that has a business (or “Commerce”) school, and W&L has a reputation for attracting a southern, conservative student body (the frequent epithet is “White & Loaded”). W&L also has a small law school that complements the liberal arts college, hence the University moniker.
The school’s name recognizes the contributions of George Washington, who bequeathed $20,000 of James River Canal stock to the school in his will, and Robert E. Lee, who served as president for five years after the conclusion of the Civil War. Lee, numerous members of his family, and his horse Traveller, are all buried on the grounds of the Lee Chapel, which is located on campus.
The school had somehow managed to avoid national censure for its various ills - the lionization of both Washington and Lee, the right-wing student body, and the pervasiveness of Hellenic culture on campus (~85% of the student body is involved in Greek life) - until this year.
In June, a journalism professor who has worked for the school since 2008 decided that her employer needed to distance itself from Bobby Lee; I am unsure why she cashed paychecks for twelve years before arriving at this conclusion. In early July, the Bezos Blog piled on, propelling the story into national consciousness. Days later, the Washington Post updated us with news that W&L’s newly-woke facultariat had voted to change the school’s name.
A law school professor went further, demanding that the school distance itself from both Washington and Lee:
“We need to confront our history with race,” more honestly, said Brandon Hasbrouck, an assistant professor of law, who advocates far more sweeping changes from the university. “If we do that — here’s the result: Both George Washington and Robert E. Lee were perpetrators of racial terror, and should be removed from the university name, full stop.”
W&L’s Board of Trustees responded to all of this thusly (all emphasis mine):
The Board of Trustees has been watching and listening carefully during this time, and we have been moved by the importance of these issues and the passions they ignite. We have received numerous requests from students, faculty and alumni calling for changes in the university, including re-naming the institution itself and altering the design of its diploma.
And we have received equally urgent communications emphasizing that change in support of racial justice should not require any change to the university's name or its diploma.We are keenly aware that the nation's founders, like all human beings, were flawed and that many of them, including George Washington, actively participated in the institution of slavery. And we know that for many people, Confederate symbols and leaders, perhaps most notably Robert E. Lee, are painful reminders of a war fought to uphold slavery and are commonly associated with contemporary expressions of abhorrent racist sentiment.
W&L's ties to these individuals are an undeniable part of our history.
The Board recognizes the dissonance between our namesakes' connections to slavery and their significant contributions to the university. And we are committed to a deep and detailed review of our symbols and our name with the intention of securing the brightest possible future for this institution: We have formed a special Board committee to conduct this work.
Translation: The Board has heard stakeholders’ concerns and has decided to form a little committee to look into things. The furor has died down over the past two months, and I have heard zero news of faculty members quitting in protest - W&L has an enormous endowment, in particular in per capita terms, and is reputed to pay well. Hmm…
This week it was the right wing’s turn to become incensed concerning W&L. Breitbart breathlessly reported on a new course entitled “How to Overthrow the State:”
Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, is offering a course entitled “How to Overthrow the State,” which includes encouraging students to engage in “producing a Manifesto,” and “writing a persuasive essay on rewriting history and confronting memory.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk reacted to the course, telling Breitbart News, “this is disgraceful. We must stop brushing aside these egregious examples of campus craziness as isolated incidents.”
“The lessons of the past few months prove that these ideas don’t stay on campus, they spill out onto the streets,” he added. “This is a prime example of the intellectual rot that has infected the academy in America. The Trump administration should investigate and determine if this is the type of scholarship federal funds should be used to subsidize.”
Washington and Lee University did not respond to Breitbart News’ request for clarification on whether the students will be trained to overthrow only the federal government or also the state of Virginia, as well as on the educational merit of the course, and how it will shape Washington and Lee students to be successful Americans after graduation.
My father - who is not a W&L alumnus - notified me of this development at my alma mater, which distressed him immensely; he is a classic well-off boomer who watches a lot of Fox News.
I found the uproar amusing. Although my experience on campus is a little stale, during my tenure the classroom discourse at W&L permitted students to hold a wide range of views, provided they could argue effectively in favor of their position. Unconsidered adherence to any particular dogma was a recipe for mild embarrassment from a professor or peer. W&L is not in the business of providing students with practical skills for forceful regime change; rather, its raison d'être is ensuring that everyone who walks out of the place with a sheepskin has learned how to read, write, and think. Apparently, there may now be a little revolutionary cosplay involved along the way, should a student decide to enroll in this course (I suspect there will be many disappointed students who are unable to secure a seat in the lecture - W&L classes are small).
W&L’s president, Will Dudley, sent an explanatory email to the university community on Labor Day:
We live in strange times, when a first-year composition course can become national news. But that happened last week when "How to Overthrow the State: Historical Lessons from the Global South" — one of 15 introductory writing sections offered on a wide variety of topics this Fall Term — was distorted, sensationalized, and turned into political fodder on blogs, television, and social media.
Some of our faculty have received threats that we have referred to law enforcement. In addition to defending the safety of our community members and expressing my unequivocal support for the free exchange of ideas in our classrooms and in the public arena, I want to reflect on the education we offer at Washington and Lee and the way that this particular course, which became the target of misguided criticism, actually exemplifies the best of what we do.
The goal of our introductory writing courses is to impress upon our students the power of the well written word and to strengthen their ability to write clearly and persuasively. The first step in successful teaching, no matter the subject, is getting students' attention and capturing their imagination. Professors from a wide range of departments, including Africana Studies, English, History, Philosophy, and Theater, develop creative themes drawn from their own areas of expertise. Titles this term include "Monsters Among Us," "Mysteries and Puzzles," and "Shut Up & Play: Black Athletes and Activism."
The topics vary greatly, but the focus of every section is the appreciation and production of good writing. What better way to teach the power of writing — the idea that the pen is mightier than the sword — than to ask students to read and evaluate historical texts that aspired to move their original audiences to revolution? The Declaration of Independence, for example, is one of the first works on the syllabus in "How to Overthrow the State." The revolution announced by Jefferson's political words, and accomplished by Washington's military deeds, brought the United States into being. Students in this course read primary texts from numerous other historical periods, including the "South Carolina Articles of Secession."
The course does not advocate revolution or train students for it. It studies how revolutionaries have written in order to help students become more powerful and persuasive writers. That is directly in the service of our mission, and I'm proud we offer this course at Washington and Lee. The overreaction to "How to Overthrow the State" also calls for reflection on civility, another of the core values in our mission statement.
This, I believe, is what constitutes a “mic drop” within the walls of the academy. Finally, I cannot resist the delicious irony that both Washington and Lee were involved, albeit with divergent degrees of effectiveness, in efforts to … overthrow the state!