A business professor at the University of Utah has been turned into the authorities for gender bias.

And how was this blatant sexism manifested? Outrageously, the professor assigned texts by male economics writers.

The College Fix reports that a 22-year-old female student turned him into the “Office for Inclusive Excellence.”

In fairness, the student claimed that in addition to assigning the work of male economists, the offending professor used sexist language.

But the preponderance of the complaint was the readings. The College Fix dug through the University of Utah’s bias reports. It found:

In the female student’s bias report, she stated that while her professor “never applauded these philosophers on their sexist beliefs,” he “never outright said they were wrong” and “continued to place them upon a pedestal.”

The report does not cite the scholars assigned in the business course, although typical economists discussed in such a class might include Adam Smith, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.

The student continued: “Many of these figures are of great importance. But at what cost do we continue to plant the seed of sexism in the minds of individuals? But especially in a course and college that is already deemed to be a ‘boys club’, continuing those teachings, and those teachings being delivered by a professor of [his] character is dangerous.”

. . .

She continued that she began to “fear” his sexist banter and said she “also began to fear the readings and I could not even finish one assigned reading due to its clear sexist message.”

Well, I guess that’s a better excuse for not having your lessons than “the dog ate my homework.”

It is also beyond satire that this young woman believes that a professor should stop in the middle of explaining an author’s economic thought to chastise the author for sexism (if in fact, there was any sexism in the first place).

The only apparently sexist banter quoted in the article was a statement attributed to the professor that he would like to retire to Tahiti, where he would be surrounded by “beautiful women feeding him grapes.”

No, probably not a joke to tell today, but unless the atmosphere was more lurid than is conveyed, the trauma of hearing such an attempt at humor should be temporary.  

The College Fix also looked at other bias complaints for the year. Here is my favorite:

On September 7, a group of four male students were sitting at a table studying. A female student just finishing up a group project noticed the table of male students being “loud and distracting.” At one point, a young man wearing a black shirt and khaki shorts complained that his laptop computer battery was dying. One of the other men at the table offered his charger to the student but he says the charger is incompatible with his laptop. The student offering the charger says it will definitely work if you “just force it.” The student put his hands around his mouth and loudly whispered, “That’s rape. I’m not raping my computer.”

Looks like these students aren’t availing themselves of four years of relative leisure to explore ideas and read the great books. That used to be part of why one went to college.

Speaking of great ideas and books, George Orwell himself could not have come up with a better name than Office for Inclusive Excellence.