A Yale undergraduate organization that, many years ago, I played a part in founding holds an annual banquet. Last year, it had to be canceled, because Yale was barely functioning and students’ lives were subject to severe restrictions. This year, preparations were under weigh for the event. This evening, however, I received an e-mail from the chairman announcing that it will have to be postponed.
[G]iven the the relative lack of restrictions last semester, I didn't foresee any changes in University policy preventing us from following through with the event.
Unfortunately, this afternoon, the University announced a new slate of COVID-19 restrictions effective until, at the earliest, February 7th. Among these restrictions are a prohibition on students visiting any off-campus establishment, which would prevent currently enrolled [students] from attending the Banquet. Between this, and the possibility of further restrictions being imposed, we've determined that we cannot feasibly hold the Banquet at this time.
My alma mater seems determined to seize whatever prize is offered for Overbearing Stupidity. The notion that men and women in their late teens and early twenties must be subjected to a version of in loco parentis that would have been considered excessive in a 19th Century convent can be entertained only by administrators who either lust after the exercise of arbitrary power or have been driven mad by an irrational fear of what is, for persons of undergraduate age, a disease that inflicts, at worst, the same symptoms as a moderately severe cold.
The next step, I foresee, will be the updating of Yale’s motto from Lux et Veritas to Nox et Ignorantia.
If I were still a student, I would obtain a bull horn, take a position in the vicinity of President Salovey’s manse, and recite in a stentorian voice a parable for our times, “How Hamilcar Wilts Prepared For Everything And Got It”.
Boola, boola.
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