XPost: alt.education, sac.politics, alt.politics.conservative   
   XPost: alt.politics.radical-left, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/31/despite-opposition-from-parents-and-   
   board-members-grove-city-college-doubles-down-on-woke-educators/   
      
   Despite the board’s moral clarity and strong leadership, Grove City’s   
   administration fell prey to CRT and mission drift.   
      
   Few institutions of higher learning can match Grove City College’s (GCC)   
   legacy of conservatism and independence. During the Reagan Revolution, the   
   college famously sued the Department of Education over government   
   overreach and walked away from federal funding to safeguard its self-   
   determination. Today, Grove City’s official bulletin declares that the   
   college “unapologetically advocates preservation of America’s religious,   
   political, and economic heritage of individual freedom and   
   responsibility.”   
      
   Yet ferocious cultural headwinds now threaten to destroy even the most   
   stalwart conservative institutions. Those lacking leaders who understand   
   the severity of the storm will be tossed about by the waves and knocked   
   off course. Some will sink. This time last year, Grove City seemed   
   destined for that fate.   
      
   Woke programming has made its way into the chapel, the classroom, and the   
   dorms at Grove City. For months, concerned parents tried to sound the   
   alarm that GCC was drifting from its historic mission. When those concerns   
   fell on deaf ears, they banded together, launched an online petition, and   
   spread the word on social media. After the administration stonewalled,   
   current and former faculty issued a letter to the school’s board of   
   trustees asking them to intervene.   
      
   In response, the board took the unprecedented step of establishing a   
   committee to investigate CRT and mission drift. Its subsequent report is a   
   sterling example of conviction and clarity. The board reaffirmed the   
   college’s conservative legacy and denounced CRT as incompatible with the   
   college’s mission. It further detailed exactly how CRT had made inroads   
   into the institution and gave clear instructions to President Paul McNulty   
   on how to remediate matters.   
      
   Conservatives cheered. It appeared that a passionate constituency and a   
   vigilant board had rewritten the age-old tale of leftward mission drift   
   within Christian higher education. All that remained was the follow-   
   through of the college administration.   
      
   Four months after the board issued its report, the results are in, and   
   they aren’t pretty.   
      
   In contrast to the board’s unambiguous posture and clear directives, the   
   college’s administration appears less assured in GCC’s identity and more   
   concerned with not rocking the boat. The board’s report declared GCC to be   
   a “conservative, independent, and Christ-centered college standing athwart   
   the increasingly progressive higher-education environment.”   
      
   But Grove City’s president Paul McNulty expressed a conflicted view of the   
   situation in recent reflections on the CRT controversy. He said, “I worry   
   that our polarization is extended to the point where I don’t know how we   
   come out of it. It seems to be much different than in the past. Students   
   come in seeing themselves as culture warriors. They see everything through   
   that lens.”   
      
   Where McNulty lacks resolve, his Provost, Peter Frank, lacks confidence.   
   In a recent video, Frank stipulated that it is hard to explain what makes   
   Grove City special, but it has something to do with how GCC balances the   
   conflict between free enterprise and the common good, a remarkable   
   admission from the chief academic officer of Freedom’s College.   
      
   In short, Grove City’s constituency and its board want a bold, counter-   
   cultural institution, but key administrators appear hesitant. The school’s   
   befuddling and now-reversed decision to remove the word “conservative”   
   from its vision statement — reportedly motivated by a desire to distance   
   itself from baggage associated with the word — makes sense in light of   
   academic leadership’s tepid defense of the conservative intellectual   
   tradition.   
      
   Perhaps reservations among top administrators account for the dearth of   
   personnel change at GCC over the summer. Every single member of the cast   
   of characters who brought CRT into the school will be returning: Don Optiz   
   (chaplain who oversaw a series of woke chapel talks), Justin Jose   
   (Director of the Office of Multicultural Education & Initiatives),   
   Christopher Merrick (Residential Director who gave a CRT-lite chapel talk   
   and disparaged Grove City on a student-run podcast), and faculty in the   
   Education Department who approved and taught CRT-infused courses. It is   
   difficult to square this reality with the board’s directive that McNulty   
   address situations where staff are not aligned with the college’s mission.   
   Two such cases are particularly noteworthy.   
      
   The first was renewing the contract of Psychology Professor Warren   
   Throckmorton. Last week, Throckmorton announced he would be retiring from   
   Grove City at the end of the 2022-23 academic year in a tweet that   
   garnered sympathy from prominent ex-evangelical lefties. His misalignment   
   with the school was evident as early as 2017 but came into focus again via   
   his copious blogging and tweeting in support of CRT and his numerous media   
   appearances in which he belittled the parents’ anti-CRT campaign. In the   
   grossest instance, he tried to shame GCC Board Chair Edward Breen in an   
   interview with Inside Higher Ed.   
      
   It’s unclear whether Throckmorton chose to retire or is being retired by   
   GCC’s administration. Either way, a competent administration should have   
   realized the risk inherent in Throckmorton’s return this fall. With   
   nothing to lose, he could become toxic and act as a ringleader for other   
   pro-CRT malcontents. Early reports suggest this is exactly how he intends   
   to behave.   
      
   According to a current GCC student who commented on the condition of   
   anonymity, Throckmorton announced on the first day of class that he would   
   spend his final year voicing his disagreements about CRT along with other   
   like-minded professors on campus.   
      
   The second instance is the astonishing case of Cedric Lewis, previously a   
   guest lecturer in the school’s entrepreneurship program and something of   
   an entrepreneur himself, with apparent business interests in a hemorrhoid   
   treatment company, according to his Twitter bio. Lewis helped design and   
   teach a one-sided pop-CRT course for Grove City’s Education Department.   
   After the board released its report, Lewis took to Twitter to tell his   
   story, stating the board exhibited disturbing bias and their interviews —   
   which were conducted by a committee including two sitting federal judges —   
   “wouldn’t pass the smell test in a legal setting.”   
      
   Lewis also gave interviews to Religion News Service, Inside Higher Ed, The   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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