Today’s new word is BART

Actually it's an acronym. It used to be BART meant "Bay Area Rapid Transit" at least to me. Here in Columbus it means "Bias Assessment Response Team," and if the same nonsense weren't cropping up on most college campuses, I’d suggest you send your hard earned tuition dollars to another school.

No crime committed, no state law violated, nor university policy or code of conduct, but. . .it can still be reported if someone suspects the perp’s “motivation” and feels offended. A teaching career or a school record can all go up in smoke from an anonymous report. And what recourse does the “reported” one have? Who is the judge and jury? Imagine the twit or bureaucrat getting on this board, committee, task force. Oh the rush of power!

This is one of the most alarming things I’ve ever read on an Ohio State web site--but your school probably has one too. We are followers here in mid-Ohio, not instigators. This was definitely imported either from the northeast or California, probably after some counselor attended a mid-winter conference in a warm climate, because normally Midwesterners are a bit tougher than this mollycoddling would indicate.

“Bias Incidents: Acts or behavior motivated by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, veteran status, ethnic/national origin groups or sexual-orientation group. While these acts do not necessarily rise to the level of a crime, a violation of state law, University policy, or the student code of conduct; a bias act may contribute to creating an unsafe, negative, or unwelcome environment for the victim, anyone who shares the same social identity as the victim, and/or community members of the University.”

Looking through the list of “protected elites,” on the web site, I’d say the only target of this harassment could be white, male, heterosexual Christian students, staff and faculty.

I looked through the summary and documentation of the reports--and considering it’s a campus of 50,000+ people primarily under 25 studying and discovering life within a few square miles, many of whom do the usual stupid mind altering activities college kids are known for--it’s not too shocking that most of the reports deal with language. Nothing illegal, mind you, except this poor little college kid whose parents are spending $20,000 to buy her education so she can compete in the real world is offended. Boohoo. Or, maybe it’s just a girlfriend/boyfriend thing; or a jealous rejected gay lover thing; or a crush on a faculty member that isn’t returned; or it’s a stalker who wants attention; or it's someone who doesn't think Obama can walk on water and is therefore a racist pig; or someone was reported to be "culturally insensitive." But once that report has been filed, I’m guessing it takes on a life of it’s own. And good luck getting the student/faculty record cleaned up. I wonder if any guys ever file reports on female students with potty mouths and say they find them sexually threatening and offensive. I know they sure think it.

See the case of the IUPUI janitor charged with harassment for reading a book about the KKK on his own time--and it was an anti-Klan book!