I was thinking of applying to NYU, but recently saw that a professor there was advised to take leave for coming out against trigger warning and safe space culture. In most other ways, I find NYU a great match. Can anyone speak from experience on whether free speech is respected at all and whether rational people who don’t buy into this idiocy can fit in there? I don’t mind other people having different views (mine are fairly centrist), but I am angered by people who try to silence others because they can’t back up their own arguments or are offended by people with other views. Obviously this goes on, but what I want to know really is whether you can avoid those kinds of people.
Curious… did you look into this? Based on what you said, my immediate thought was there has to be more to the story of this professor. So I googled.
From what I see, he was an untenured professor who set up an anonymous account where he trashed the university and a good portion of its students. According to what I read, at least some of what he said wasn’t even accurate. He was also promising to blast insider secrets of the university which to me sounds like were likely confidential.
If you leave out the political correct culture topic, I can tell you definitively that if my husband or I ranted negatively about our workplaces or the people we work with or serve in them, we would have been fired as well.
Thanks for the reply. I should have done more research into it before posting, but it just seemed like something unsurprising and believable given the current nature of colleges (although I guess most students are perfectly reasonable, but just don’t attract media attention) . Definitely a helpful response - it does indeed sound as if the professor overstepped the mark. Thanks again
Hey – NYU student here. The professor voluntarily took a (paid) leave for a single semester. It may have been advised by the university, but they definitely didn’t force him out. The official Unversity statement is that he asked for the leave, and it was completely not connected to his twitter. Also, like was already pointed out, he ran a twitter account exclusively to bash NYU and a lot of the students. Anyone bashing their bosses and workplace to that degree would likely get in trouble
Moving on from that, NYU is a fairly tolerant place to be for everyone. For example, we have an active republican and libertarian club (as well as clubs for democrats and socialists). These clubs do like to foster healthy debate–in fact, a few days ago they all joined together to host a huge presidential debate. There is also a fair share of conservatives and centrists. However, it’s important to note that NYU is a very liberal university in a very liberal city. The university absolutely doesn’t restrict free speech, but it does encourage respect for everyone and tries to make sure that everyone there feels safe and comfortable.
I don’t think your first amendment rights will be violated at NYU(lol) there are certain speech you need to watch out, For example, technically something racist or sexist is protected under the equal protection clause,if you consider a broad def of speech, symbolic speech such as burning the US flag is legal also, but doing those things at work or school could get you in pretty big trouble.
Wonderlanddd: Thanks for the help, it seems like I jumped to conclusions too early, without any experience of the college itself. I now understand more what the professor was doing and it really seems as though he overstepped the mark. I’m glad to hear about the tolerance and you definitely give helpful insight. I definitely understand that New York City is very liberal, and I really don’t mind that at all as long as I can still express my own views, which it seems like I can. Thanks for the help!
ZZHA8608: Thanks for the help, and I know it may seem funny but it does actually happen at some colleges. I’m more cleared up now on the situation and was evidently too quick to jump to conclusions. Thanks for the helpful reply!
As a film student, I can say the only time I had my free speech restricted by the school was in an NYU program in Cuba, where the university thought I could jeopardize the program by making a film about the subject I wanted to make a film about.
Beyond that extenuating circumstance, I never had the school try to restrict the kinds of films I made because they were “controversial.” Now, many students’ criticisms of parts of my films as not being PC I thought were ridiculous, but in almost every case the professors completely agreed with me and there was free debate over it.
I’d also just like to say that I don’t think it really matters what political views you have. I’m very liberal and my friend is very conservative, but we both made films that were criticized as not being PC by the kinds of people who rush to judgement because they’re triggered by a word they don’t like rather than critically examining the nuanced point that the artist is trying to make.
sittle - glad to hear about your experience. I am encouraged by the fact that you had the backing of professors in regards to non-PC films. I agree, I really don’t mind where people lie on the political spectrum, but I do mind when people are over-sensitive to harmless words flung about casually. Thanks for sharing and I’m definitely going to be applying to NYU.