Hamilton is getting chilly now. Wednesday was a very confused climate day. It started with a frosty morning dew (suggesting Winter), followed by Fall style rain that lasted throughout the day. It's been pretty rainy in general, with the occasional bit of hail thrown in. The great thing is that it's also been windy. On the bright side of things, the heaters in 84 Broad Street were fixed recently; thank you Colgate University.

The 'the world is a strange place' department -- Students and Alumni for Colgate

Starting a week and a half ago, an organization called Students and Alumni for Colgate launched a website that basically blasts Colgate University for being too... erm... tolerant. I'm intentionally leaving the address of this website out of this article because I don't want help their site ranking. Instead I trust you will be able to find the site on your own. Hint: the Colgate Maroon-News (the school newspaper) is full of references to the site.

It is not entirely clear what Students and Alumni for Colgate stands for as an organization. Fact is that their website is pretty insulting to certain minorities. I'm not sure if I should be glad that they don't specifically target international students too. Beyond that, the site just throws around a bunch of phrases such as "The Cultural Wars Have Come to Colgate" and "No Political Cleansing." The gist of it seems to be that the Greek (fraternity and sorority) houses should not be acquired by the University.

Until recently, the entire site was anonymous. Fortunately I was able to have a chat with the domain name's registrant, who was generous enough to leave her home phone number in the registration records. She, somewhat indrectly and ever so slightly reluctantly, admitted her involvement with the site. She said she'd "have her computer guy look at it" when I informed her of the possibility of hiding her personal information. This conversation took place on October 27th, the day the site was first launched. The registration record became anonymous a day later.

Being somewhat intrigued by the whole affair (particularly the part about Colgate's Core Curriculum being sub-standard), I did a little bit of research. It turns out a lot of schools have been accused of trading their good old American (frequently referred to as 'Western') values for 'multiculturalism.' Personally I think this is a legitimate concern, and I agree that at the basis of a liberal arts education is some knowledge of people like Socrates and Aristotle, literary works like Homer's and Shakespeare's, the influence of Christianity on Western society, etc.

However, Colgate is not one of the schools that has scrapped these things from its curriculum. One conservative website, www.vdare.com, states this:

According to a survey conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, only three of the top fifty-five schools in America鈥擟olumbia, Colgate, and the University of the South鈥攔equire a specific course in Western civilization. None of the schools requires a course in American history...

-John Zmirak, quoting from his work Choosing the Right College

I could go on, but I don't want to. The Students and Alumni for Colgate website currently has a 'memo' attributed to Tim Sanford, addressed to "everyone who loves Colgate University." Unfortunately I am not convinced that the site's authors belong to that group of people. Oh and before I forget: was that billboard on Route 12 really necessary?

And in my life

Fortunately no one has picked me personally for random-abuse-with-an-agenda. On Thursday I went bowling, my new Physical Education class that will replace Relaxation and Wellness. On Thursday night I was asked to run for Colgate International Community President, which I did. What happened then was somewhat disturbing: we won by default, because there were no other candidates. Deja vu.

Friday was pretty much the usual; I went to my classes and afterwards I was so pooped that I didn't do anything for most of the day. The lab was completely empty during open lab, so Kaleena and I just kinda sat there for 2.5 hours. Today (Saturday) was very similar to last week Saturday; we went out to eat and saw The Incredibles at the Hamilton movie theater. I definitely recommend The Incredibles over The Grudge, by the way.

Well, that just about covers my news: Cheers.