MORE FROM HUFFPOST
MORE FROM HUFFPOST
greg lukianoff
What the blame-the-liberals campaign doesn't acknowledge, let alone insist, is that if students are petulant or frightened now and if deans and professors are pandering to them, it's not because of liberal ideology but mainly because the "retail-store university" regards them increasingly as customers.
The statement, which can be adapted to all universities -- not just the University of Chicago -- guarantees "all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn." Most importantly, it makes clear that "it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive."
In an age of political correctness, these two men think it can discourage open discussion.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
I hope you'll read the whole article, which defies a quick summary, but there are three additional things I need to say about the piece.
Blinn is a public college bound by the First Amendment, but when a student wanted to protest in favor of her Second Amendment rights she was told that she had to limit her free speech activities to this tiny zone.
Schmidt, an art and animation professor, posted a picture of his young daughter wearing a T-shirt with the Game of Thrones quote, "I will take what is mine with fire & blood" to Google+. The dean found this picture of a child doing yoga so terror-inducing that she reported him to other BCC administrators.
The term "disinvitation season" has been something of a dark joke for years, but as every year passed, it got less funny. The intensity of demands that speakers be disinvited seemed to swell over time, and increasingly, we saw speakers bow out in the face of protest.
What is it with public colleges preventing their students from handing out the Constitution? Have these schools ever heard of the First Amendment?
