Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Terrorism-Lite: How Universities Let Students Abuse Academic Freedom


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Terrorism-Lite: How Universities Let Students Abuse Academic Freedom

by Anat Berko  •  January 6, 2015 at 5:00 am
Why are some students doing this? Because they can. No one is stopping them. There is no accountability and no cost -- either to them or to the people failing to educate them. Bad behavior is rewarded; it is allowed to go on.
Will self-declared jihadis and other "speech police" decide what is, and what is not, allowed to be discussed and taught in Western universities?
Is education now about instilling fear?
The first amendment right should not extend to depriving others of their first amendment right.
What criteria had the professor used -- and for that matter Europe -- to determine that Hamas was not a terrorist group, as opposed to the criteria used by the government of the United States to determine that, in fact, it was?
On October 29, 2013, a lecture at Brown University by New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly (center, behind the podium at the front of the room) was abruptly cut-off and cancelled after unruly protesters repeatedly interrupted Kelly's speech and would not stop. (Image source: Brown Daily Herald YouTube screenshot)
Academic freedom in the West is usually a given -- or was.
Recently, however, American universities have been allowing students to shout down speakers, "disinvite" others, and punish -- or threaten to punish -- students simply for respectfully expressing their views. These curtailments of academic freedom and free speech place apparently take place without any consequences for those who curtail, agitate or disrupt. Ironically, often the very people who shut down free speech are treated as free speech heroes.
The latest display of (repeated) extremely questionable, if not illegal, judgment by a college administration involved an academic assault by the Dean of Students at Brandeis University, Jamele Adams, on an honor-roll senior, Daniel Mael.[1] "They try," Mael said, "to intimidate students into being silent, in the interest of people's feelings not being hurt, rather than encourage debate."

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