When universities become ‘safe spaces’ from free speech
Opinion by Elizabeth Bartholet, Opinion Contributor • Yesterday 3:00 PM
Recent events at Stanford Law School are a sad sign of the state of academia. Students screamed sexual and other obscenities at a conservative judge invited to speak by a conservative student group to prevent his talking.
When, after some time, the speaker asked if a university administrator might intervene to enable him to talk, the associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion came to the podium and began an obviously prepared, nine-minute speech. She validated the students’ demonstration as an important exercise of free speech rights, and sympathized with the harm they might have suffered from the speaker’s views, while gently reminding them of the importance of allowing others to exercise speech rights.
She lectured the speaker about the harm he had inflicted on the students by his views (presumably those addressing same-sex marriage, the use of personal pronouns and gun control) and said she hoped he had been “educated” by this encounter with the students. She ended by inviting students who felt they would be harmed by hearing his words to walk out, before inviting the speaker to give his remarks.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/when-universities-become-safe-spaces-from-free-speech/ar-AA19miyM?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=b8eb9d9b9efe48e8903bea6012969a78&ei=25
