In 1968 I was at MIT. The election was highly contentious with Nixon vs Humphrey. The summer of 1968 was bedlam with the Chicago Police smashing protesters in Chicago and after the assassinations of MLK and RFK.
Jerry Wiesner was the President of MIT and the draft was a very real option. Jerry kept the MIT ship afloat and stable, managed to avoid the Harvard problems, and despite the SDS and other terrorist groups who bombed Universities, we were relatively stable. Jerry treated us as adults and expected us to act accordingly.
Now some fifty plus years latter the President of MIT writes:
In the coming weeks, I hope we will remember this feeling of pulling together – because, for all that we have in common, we do not agree on everything. As the election nears, it is important to acknowledge that the great global family of MIT includes people with a wide variety of political views. By definition then, however the coming election turns out, some members of our community will be disappointed, heartbroken, angry. If the issues at stake feel fairly distant to you, please know that there are also members of our community who fear direct, disturbing personal consequences in their daily lives.
Yes, he assumes the students, faculty and staff are a bunch on over-privileged children who will whine and cry at the least instigation. Is there as basis for this? I believe so. The change in universities have made them less institutions of leading research and more locations for self indulgent children.
I suspect our putative adversaries are more comfortable each time people like this push the boundaries ever so more in the direction of wanton childhood.
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