We have been discussing student editors and student government leaders using their positions to retaliate against the exercise of free speech by other students with the support of faculty. This trend is hardly surprising as journalism deans call for censorship and journalism professors call for the rejection of neutrality in the media. Universities have generally remained passive as students and faculty harass and punish those with opposing views. The latest such example was detailed in a column on the site College Fix on how students at Cornell University moved to oust student representatives who voted against disarming and defunding campus police. What concerns me most is the silence of the university on the controversy.
According to the report, students failed to pass a resolution calling for the defunding and disarming of the Cornell Police Department. After the measure failed, student leaders called for the removal of opposing leaders from committees or the student government as a whole. Uchenna Chukwukere, the Student Assembly vice president of finance declared
“These 15 student assembly members watched us pour out our traumas and fears on the floor practically begging them to vote no, and finally send a message to the university that we can no longer allow these oppressive institutions to keep us down. Many of these assembly members are white-cis-het men and women who quite literally laughed and danced in our faces when the resolution failed…Their faces are all over social media…We will never forget… their campus careers are over. … We must disarm, defund, and disband the Cornell University Police Department.”
Eventually, after a series of failed votes, the student organizers were able to pass Resolution 30, calling to disarm campus police by two votes.
Student Dakota Johnson, a Marine veteran, recounted a confrontation with a government leader where he was allegedly told that “As a white man, you cannot be the arbiter of what is and isn’t racist and who is a good or bad person. … You will never be the arbiter because you are a white man.”
The question is the responsibility of universities when students use their positions to deny the free speech of other students or punish those who hold opposing views. There has been a conspicuous silence from faculty ad administrators as both free speech and academic freedom has been attacked in recent years. It is a disgraceful failure to protect the foundational values for academia. Many are afraid of being the next to be targeted by campaigns like those directed against the students at Cornell. This silence has continued even as faculty are hounded for their views or writings. We have been discussing these cases across the country including a similar effort to oust a leading economist from the University of Chicago as well as an effort at Harvard targeting a leading academic. It is part of a wave of intolerance sweeping over our colleges and our newsrooms — a campaign that will devour its own in the loss of academic freedoms and free speech.
Even if we will not protect our colleagues, we have a duty to protect the students who come to our campuses to learn and develop their own views and values. That includes protecting them from being formally punished or ousted for their viewpoints. If we do not fight for them and their rights, we have become entirely untethered from any principle other than our personal advancement and safety.
Uchenna Chukwukere isn’t suffering any traumas or fears in Tompkins County, NY (above and beyond those caused by trying to operate a motor vehicle in Ithaca when it gets icy). Send this drama queen back to whatever latrine spawned him.
Actually I’m a pink man. Can I play with anyone?
The next step………mandatory yellow stars, identifying tattoos and work camps with the slogan “Arbeit befreit dich” over the entryway.
Holy cow! I can’t believe how scared people are of some college kids.
You’d think they’re leaving a trail of bodies and burnt out buildings in their wake, but what actually happened was a bunch of student politicians started manipulating rules as political retribution for folks who didn’t vote with them. What’s the 1st Amendment claim?
There are situations where stuff like this is a matter of principle more so than practice. Maybe that’s what Turley’s on about. Like, if a President just fired government officials because they didn’t cancel an investigation into his friends, for example, it could be legally questioned as a proper use of political authority. Or if a bunch of elected officials decide to ignore confidentiality rules and storm into a closed session for the benefit of teevee reporters, it’s plausible that some sort of legal or procedural redress would be expected.
But gosh. College students saying mean things to a…oh, dear…a MARINE. Yikes, this is serious.
“your campus careers are over”
sounds like a trail of bodies to me. But you keep being cute.
You can’t be sincere with this. This is a joke, right?
What’s a “campus career,” anyway? Like not getting elected to the student government?
Do you have any sense of perspective whatsoever?
You left out the word “vice.” Yes, Biden used an actual quid pro quo to stop his son from being investigated. (Doh!) College kids merely said mean things? Yes, that’s true. But they were racist things too. Let’s not BS each other. We both know damn well that if a Caucasian had said those exact same words (only in reverse) to a so called POC you’d be here crying a river, not downplaying it!
It was Trump who fired Sessions because he didn’t cancel the Mueller inquiry, if you want to be accurate.
But y’all guys will believe anything, obviously.
Like that you know what I think about free speech.
As we all know, the entire Russian Collusion/Mueller sh*t show was a hoax. So even if Trump fired the feckless Sessions for that (which can’t and never will be proven), so F-ing what! However, you still skated on answering the main topic and issue here. That is, you would’ve thought it was a big deal if those “mean things” were said to a POC and that you just didn’t care because it was a white guy.
Well, since you really want my opinion, I couldn’t care less what a bunch of spoiled college kids say to each other on campus. There are actually some important issues facing the country right now, and college agitators aren’t one of them. Being exposed to different ideas is a big part of what college is about.
For sure, if someone called a POC a POC, it wouldn’t be an issue at all.
The Marine WAS a white man, you know. Calling him such is only appropriate.
Now since I answered your question, maybe you’ll answer mine.
Why are you even concerned about this? What’s your fantasy about what’s going to happen if college kids are permitted to say mean things to white guys?
“As a white man, you cannot be the arbiter of what is and isn’t racist and who is a good or bad person”
I’ve known 3rd graders with more maturity and common sense than whoever said that.
Heh. That’s my thinking too. I admit I’m surprised a ranting college kid is causing a panic among the legal experts hanging out here.
It’s funny that the majority of the ‘Opressed’ who are complaining the most about inequality are getting a free ride through school. Let that hypocrisy sink in.
Daniel: Let ‘what’ sink in??? You haven’t written anything of any real substance. Nor have we ever seen your name before.
Meanwhile have you “voter fraud” losers heard about Powell’s supposed expert witnesses who she claimed were intelligence experts?
One worked was at an Army Intelligence Battalion during his military service – working on vehicles as a mechanic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/sidney-powell-spider-spyder-witness/2020/12/11/0cd567e6-3b2a-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html
The other one is a total flake with a pro-Trump podcast who claims all kinds of education degrees she doesn’t have, just like her claimed intelligence experience.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/sidney-powells-secret-intelligence-contractor-witness-is-a-pro-trump-podcaster/2020/12/24/d5a1ab9e-4403-11eb-a277-49a6d1f9dff1_story.html
This is who you guys are counting on to overthrow an election. This all part of “the Kraken” she claimed would unload on Democrats like ….. Durham!
GIve it up, you have nothing. NOTHING! NADA!
“GIve it up, you have nothing.”
Hey Joey ChiCom!
You and Pooh Bear Jinping are in for an extremely unpleasant 2021.
Rhodes;
Comrade Josef is a pretty bad propagandist. That’s for sure.
Even if it were a point well taken (and it almost never is), it’s irrelevant to the subject under discussion. His handlers at Correct-the-Record haven’t told him to be subtle in attempting diversions. He does this sort of thing almost daily.
Between the DNC cheerleaders and the autistic liberterian voice that drivels on and one endlessly this place is a mess
(music)
Silent Night. Holy Trump.
All is bland. All is right.
Brown young virgins soulfully bright.
Christ the auto is born.
Drive into heaven with porn.