Arizona is about to pass legislation that would require public schools, from K-12 through higher ed, to display American flags in classrooms. Because most secondary schools already do this, the law won’t have much of an impact on them. But the same isn’t true for colleges and universities, and they’re already griping. Some complain about the cost of this unfunded mandate (the state supplies no money for the flags, and the law also stipulates, protectionist-style, that they be manufactured in the United States); others worry about vandalism because professors don’t take ownership of specific classrooms the way K-12 teachers do, and there’s apparently an abundance of America haters on Arizona’s campuses. The most entertainingly outrageous responses, however, come from faculty members who don’t care about the cost so much as the symbolism:
Reyes Medrano, professor of business at Paradise Valley Community College and president-elect of the faculty association for the Maricopa Community College District … said that while he doesn’t object to anyone flying a flag, he doesn’t see why it should be forced on college classrooms, especially when its meaning isn’t entirely positive to everyone. “I’m not anti-U.S. or anti-any country,” he said, but flags equate with nationalism, which “creates separatism and unnecessary conflict.”
Focusing on the flag, he said, can encourage people to “place our values in an institution rather than in humanity.”