Ohio State students found in violation of the Code of Conduct could face harsher punishments based on their personal opinions and thoughts.
As reported in The Lantern Friday, the University Senate approved changes to the code that include more severe punishments for student violations motivated by some kind of bias. According to the article, racially motivated hate mail sent to dorms last year influenced the new rules.
Although the idea that someone could harm another based on race, sex or religion is abhorrent, it might not be in a university’s best interest to try to control its students’ thoughts.
Ideally, individual prejudices would be broken down by the very experience of being on a college campus, where an almost unparalleled diversity of ideas, races, religions and backgrounds are represented. Of course, this does not always happen, and although diversity requirements in the general education curriculum are steps in the right direction, OSU should strive to remove ignorance and intolerance by affecting perceptions, not controlling behavior.
The Lantern is in favor, however, of anti-discrimination regulations that keep universities or employers from denying applicants on the basis of sexual orientation, ethnicity or any number of factors. But t can be far too easy to toss out the word discrimination when it is not always appropriate. It is so hard to assume another’s state of mind that such assessments should be kept out of judicial affairs.
Eliminating prejudice might not be feasible in the near future, but there are many things institutions can do to fight it. One thing it cannot do, however, is try to control individual thoughts by punishing personal beliefs.
