The Samantha Fulnecky essay? broke my brain about what college is even for anymore

I'm sitting in my dorm at 2 AM, and I've been spiraling about this for hours. The Samantha Fulnecky situation has fundamentally broken something in my brain about the purpose of higher education, and I need to know if anyone else feels this way.

Here's where I'm at: I grew up in a really conservative household. Like, homeschooled until high school, church three times a week, the whole deal. My parents sent me to college expecting me to get a degree and come back with my beliefs intact. And for the most part, I have. I'm still a Christian. I still hold traditional views on most things. But I've also had professors who challenged me, who made me read things I disagreed with, who forced me to actually articulate why I believe what I believe instead of just repeating what I was taught.

And honestly? That's been good for me. My faith is stronger now because I've actually had to defend it, you know?

But this whole Samantha Fulnecky situation makes me wonder if my parents were right to be worried. Because on one side, I have people saying college is supposed to challenge your worldview. That's literally the point. You're supposed to encounter new ideas, engage with evidence, learn how to construct arguments. The instructor in this case wasn't asking Samantha to abandon her beliefs—she was asking her to engage with the course material. The feedback literally says "I am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs" . She just wanted Samantha to actually answer the questions from the assignment .

But on the other side, I have people saying that any challenge to a student's worldview is indoctrination, that professors should never grade based on whether you engaged with material that conflicts with your beliefs, that a bad grade is persecution. And I just... I don't know how to reconcile those two things.

What is college FOR? Is it supposed to make you think, or is it supposed to affirm what you already believe? Because if it's the second one, why am I even here? I could just stay home and watch YouTube videos that tell me I'm right about everything.

My roommate (who's pre-law and very opinionated) says that college is for learning skills, not for changing your beliefs. She says as long as you can write a grammatically correct sentence, your personal beliefs shouldn't matter. But the thing is, the essay WASN'T grammatically correct. There were errors. There was no thesis. There was no engagement with the source material . So even by her "skills only" standard, it fails.

I don't know. Maybe I'm overthinking this. Maybe college is just a piece of paper you need to get a job. But something about watching this whole situation play out—the 40 million views, the governor getting involved, the TA getting death threats and removed from teaching —makes me feel like we're losing something important. Like we've forgotten that learning is supposed to be uncomfortable sometimes.

Anyway, if anyone has figured out what college is actually for in 2025, please let me know. I have to declare my major next semester and I'm lowkey panicking.

Marta, I think you've actually answered your own question in a really beautiful way. You said your faith is stronger now because you've had to defend it. That's literally what college is FOR.

The Fulnecky situation is messy because it's been politicized beyond recognition. 40 million views. The governor involved. Death threats to a TA . That's not about education anymore—that's about culture wars. But if you strip all that away, what's left is a simple question: should students have to engage with material they disagree with?

I think yes. That's the whole point. If you can't engage with ideas you hate, you haven't really learned anything. You've just learned how to stay comfortable.