The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the elite science and engineering university, is altering its admissions requirements in an effort to make access to the ultra-competitive institution more “equitable.”

Therefore, it is no longer requiring applicants to have already taken calculus, physics and chemistry in high school. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, prior to this decision, Ashley Pallie-- Caltech’s executive director of undergraduate admissions-- began to question whether the requirements were unfair to students from less advantaged backgrounds. Ergo, Caltech dropped its calculus, chemistry, and physics requirements, as long as applicants could supposedly prove their academic chops otherwise, such as through taking an online course.

Call me a skeptic, but this seems “problematic,” as the wokesters are wont to say, especially for an engineering school.

So the dismantling of standards continues apace. Liberal arts schools eschew previously popular classical courses like Western Civilization and Western Literature. Debate and rhetoric are now all but extinct, having given way to more progressive disciplines like women’s studies and gender race theory.

So to hell with calculus, physics and chemistry. Say good-bye to “STEM” classes. (And Shakespeare, for that matter.)

A new class list for the fall 0f 2024, regardless of the educational institution, might look very much like this:

*Introduction to Marxist Theory

*Reflections On Systemic U.S. Racism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Hyper-Christianity

*Oceans On Fire: Humans’ Role In Existential Climate Change

*Why Republicans Are Evil

*Fun In The Butt: How Anal Sex Can Set You Free

*Crapitalism: An Exposé On Profit And The Free Market And Why They Suck

American colleges and universities were once a net good, challenging—and opening-- minds and driving invention and entrepreneurship. Today, too many act as cancers on our culture, poisoning—and indoctrinating-- minds and promulgating disdain of excellence and hatred of America. These soul-deadening institutions sap families of money, unity and hope, extol credentialism and globalism…and attempt to export this toxic mix to other lands in the guise of “progress.”

For the good of society, we must do our best to return universities to what they once were. Even if we ultimately prove unsuccessful in that endeavor, we must give it the old college try.

Image: Canon.vs.nikon, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0