Universal Toilet Talk

Cornell is flush with ideological conformity

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Dear Coddling Movie Community,

When Dr.

Randy Wayne

hosted Courtney and me at Cornell University for a special screening of The Coddling movie, we really enjoyed getting to know him.

You expect a Cornell scientist to be brilliant, but while in Ithaca and after I returned home, I came to see how Randy’s brilliance spreads into fields, such as cosmology, that fall far outside his official area of expertise—plant biology.

I’m always grateful for his contributions to TCM, and I’ve learned to expect his wide-ranging insights. But what I didn’t expect was something like today’s contribution, one that makes my 10-year-old son snicker mischievously.

I hope you’ll enjoy some potty talk from our Ivy League contributor!

All the best,

Ted

I am so relieved!

Dear readers of The Coddling of the American Mind Movie Substack, I cannot hold it in any longer and must express myself.

I need to tell you that I now understand why Cornell University’s CALS School of Integrative Plant Science did not announce in the Diversity & Inclusion Conversation link that Daryl Davis was coming to Cornell to talk about fighting racism with free speech or John Ondrasik was coming to Cornell to fight antisemitism through the arts.

Such events just don’t have the same urgency as, say, knowing where to go when nature calls. Maybe that’s why the school’s newsletter ignored the Davis and Ondrasik events, but included an announcement that explains where to find universal restrooms across campus.

Moreover, the announcement in the Diversity & Inclusion Conversation link is complete with a location directory and a map.

I am, however, disappointed that while we have two universal restrooms in Emerson Hall, one of the three buildings that house the CALS School of Integrative Plant Science, we do not have a single universal restroom, washroom, lavatory, water closet, toilet, throne, stall, crapper, commode, potty, or loo in the Plant Science Building or in Bradfield Hall.

It is time that we put our money where our butts are.

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Also by Randy Wayne

• Does Cornell University Deserve Bill Maher’s Praise?

• Cornell Supports Inclusion (Unless That Means Including Conversations about Antisemitism)

• Another Ivy League President is Gone: Why I Have Been Expecting Cornell's Martha Pollack to "Retire"

• “I Realized My Colleagues Were Intellectually Lazy” — Cornell’s Dr. Randy Wayne on the Sad State of the Ivy League

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George Harrison wrote the last verse to the song Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan:

When the truth gets buried deep,

beneath a thousand years of sleep,

time demands a turn around,

and once again the truth is found.

Let’s apply this thinking to the postmodern university.