Academia has entered a Red Guard phase of extreme political correctness, where the use of a common figure of speech, a time-honored metaphor, is now grounds for demands that a career be ended.  The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports:

The University of Iowa's new president has apologized to an employee who chastised him for saying publicly that instructors who aren't ready to teach their classes should be shot.

The employee has accepted the apology, but critics on campus are calling on the president to resign in light of the incident.

Bruce Harreld told librarian Lisa Gardinier in an email that his statement to the UI Staff Council last week was "an unfortunate off-the-cuff remark." He said he didn't mean to offend anyone or imply that he supports gun violence, according to email correspondence Gardinier first shared with the Associated Press.

"Frankly, I have used the comment in many, many forums and this is the first time anyone has objected to it,” Harreld wrote. “I apologize and appreciate your calling my attention to it," Harreld wrote.

Is there any person with an IQ above 60 who believes Harreld was actually inciting violence?

Madness has gripped the social justice warriors, intoxicated with the power they currently wield.  This will not end well.  The American system of higher education, painstakingly built over the last two centuries, is in crisis, so bloated with excess administrators (many of them performing useless PC functions) and waste that purchasing a college education for two children ranks with buying a house as a life-altering financial event for middle-class families.  Over-expansion combined with a decline in the demographic segment that attends college (in large part thanks to abortion) means that there will not be enough resources to sustain the current number of higher education institutions.  And now, many prominent members of the industry are beclowning themselves.

Hat tip: David Paulin