Halloween costumes have scared college administrators into taking action. Are they over-looking other dangers that require moral guidance?
Last year, Yale University lost faculty members in a dispute about offensive Halloween costumes. This year, the University of Florida is offering round-the-clock counseling; Tufts is promising “disciplinary action;” and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has installed: S.C.R.E.A.M.— the “Simple Costume Racism Evaluation and Assessment Meter.” Mark Bauerline is a professor at Emory University in Atlanta. His op-ed column on the subject appeared recently in the New York Times.