Our institutions of higher education are not exactly stepping up during this moment of generational change. At a minimum these institutions are not keeping up and, at worst, they are failing us altogether.
Recently, my daughter, who is on the cusp of leaving our nest, and I attended an admission event for prospective students at a state university, specializing in biological sciences. After a tour of campus, I stepped into the women’s restroom in the student center. On the sink in the restroom was a box of free menstrual products. The sign on the box read “You may have found this box in a men’s restroom. This is because there are individuals who use this restroom who need these products.”
My issue with the above scenario is not about the transgender individuals who use the restroom. Of course everyone has the right to use a public restroom. Let me be clear, people who identify as transgender deserve our respect and kindness, like any other individual. They are people with rights, and I am not suggesting that any be taken away from them.
As someone who earned a bachelor’s degree in science and who studied biology in order to matriculate, I will tell you from a biological perspective, if a person needs a menstrual product, that person is not genetically male. Admittedly it has been a while, but I learned that the X and Y chromosomes, also known as the sex chromosomes, determine the biological sex of an individual. Females are born with XX and males are born with XY chromosomes. And as far as I know, this has not changed regardless of how our language has evolved.
This whole experience left me in a quandary. Is academia being forced to ignore biology to satisfy the culture of their students? How is the world of science and academia addressing gender identity? Has the study of biology developed to address the biological roots of gender identity? These questions were swimming in my mind all the while as I was trying to accept and honor that my child’s generation has different ideas and values than I do when it comes to gender.
But it’s not just about bathrooms or menstrual products. It is also the need to tiptoe around pronouns and the word-policing, feeling like any one of us may be canceled at any time because of an honest slip-up.
The American public also holds a complex set of views around the issues of gender identity. Pew Research Center completed a survey last May of more than 10,000 adults. Among respondents, 60% said a person’s gender is determined at birth, which is up from 56% in 2021 and 54% in 2017. Roughly 8 out of 10 U.S. adults say there is at least some discrimination against transgender people in our society, and a majority favors laws that would protect transgender individuals from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces.
Then there is the issue of cancel culture. A New York Times/Siena poll showed that 84% of Americans say being afraid to exercise freedom of speech is a serious problem. Over half, 55%, of Americans say that “they have held their tongue, that is, not spoken freely over the last year because they were concerned about retaliation or harsh criticism,” The Times reported.
In his book “A Time to Build,” Yuval Levin defines an institution as the frameworks and structures of what we do together. Institutions provide a structure, are moved by purpose, defined by an ideal, and are capable of certain functions. Levin writes: “What does stand out about our time, though, is not the strength of the pressures we are under but the weakness of our institutions — from the family on up through the national government, with much in between. That weakness leaves us less able to hold together against the pressures we do face.”
Now more than ever, as Americans grapple with these pressures, whether it is the changing attitudes on gender issues or dealing with the inability to speak freely, we need strong institutions to help guide and lead us. Unfortunately, across the board, Americans’ confidence in our institutions is at a new low, and institutions don’t appear to be adding clarity where people need it.
I hope that administrators in higher education begin to recognize the importance of their roles as an institution in our society and start to act accordingly, thinking about what their purpose, ideals and functions are. Is it educating and guiding our students with knowledge and skills to prepare them for careers or is it furthering cultural ideals?
My daughter will soon walk past pillars on her way into campus academic buildings. May they be as strong institutionally as they are architecturally. And may they teach her biology.
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