Written for Bacon’s Rebellion
Although she passionately believed in the right to life when she entered the College of William & Mary, Skyler Culbertson describes herself as “borderline liberal” and politically uninvolved. The past two years, however, have radicalized her.
In a Hot Air podcast she says: “I was like, oh my gosh, indoctrination is not just a right-wing talking point — it’s real! And ever since then, I pretty much changed. Now I consider myself pretty much like a MAGA Republican, about as far right as you can get, all thanks to the craziness of William and Mary and the liberals.”
In Hot Air and College Fix, she tells how she has been called a “threat to humanity,” has been cyber-stalked, received an oblique death threat, and routinely gets obscene hate messages. Her foes tear down her flyers. In one incident, a student threw a cup of urine at her fellow right-to-lifers manning an information table.
The administration’s response?
“Every time that I’ve run into an issue, I’ve met with a dean on several occasions, and he normally just directs me right to the police department…. It seems like the administration at William and Mary is not really doing anything,” she told Hot Air. “And it’s unacceptable.”
That’s just one person’s story, of course. It may be atypical — Culbertson is that rare individual who makes her positions known and refuses to be intimidated. She doesn’t shrink from making herself a target.
Most conservative students — and I have been talking to many in my day job as executive director of The Jefferson Council at the University of Virginia — deal with leftist intolerance by keeping their opinions to themselves. They parrot professors’ political views in class or refrain from speaking. They retreat from public spaces, shrink from engaging with students they don’t know, and confide their conservative views only to friends they trust.
William & Mary alumni, where the hell are you?
Are you OK with the campus environment at W&M? Is that the intellectual climate you remember when you were there? Are you going to stand by silently as a once-great institution decays into an indoctrination center? At least the victims of Mao’s Red Guards weren’t charged $30,000 a year in tuition and fees when they shipped “enemies of the people” off to re-education camps — today’s parents of college kids pay for the privilege.
Get involved, W&M alumni! Join the alumni rebellion. The Jefferson Council and our friends at VMI, Washington & Lee, and James Madison University will show you how to get organized.
