Free speech on campus? Not likely

A Free-Speech Fix for Our Divided Campuses

Wall Street Journal

Suzanne Nossel

Nov. 17, 2023

Clashes over the Israel-Hamas war show that, for the sake of American democracy, college students need to be taught how to disagree without fear or hatred.

The Israel-Hamas war has created a crisis of protest and confrontation on American campuses. At Cooper Union in New York, pro-Palestinian student demonstrators pounded on the door of a library as fearful Jewish classmates sheltered inside. A Cornell undergraduate used a campus website to post threats to attack the school’s center for Jewish life. At Harvard, students who signed letters blaming Israel for Hamas’s attack saw their names emblazoned on a truck in Harvard Square and posted on websites in an effort to hurt their chances with potential employers. Both Brandeis and Columbia have taken steps to penalize pro-Palestinian student groups for activity they argue violates university policies, prompting charges that they are selectively suppressing activism.

My response

Expecting leadership from our universities? Shirley, you must be joking. Per Taylor Mali, these are the people who got us into this mess.

Although I am not a big fan of "hate speech" laws, conflating peaceful, often prayerful protests with sadistic, violence-filled, extremist language, images and threats as both being a form of free speech staggers the mind. But, then again, what would you expect from the progressive university leaders and their followers, who claim "Silence is violence" and supply "safe space" for self-identified, intersectional victims?

These universities are admitting students lacking academic qualifications and skills, educating them in social justice, coddling them with safe spaces and anti-trigger warnings, burdening them with mountains of debt and few employment prospects for their "studies" degrees, and then expressing surprise when the kids chose protesting over studying -- it just shows just how emotionally unintelligent these academic leaders can be.