I was being facetious. I’ve read the FIRE publications.
Some campuses seem to be on the tipping point right now. Ripping down posters- a non-violent act. Painting swastikas- a non-violent act. Jeering and heckling Jewish students-- a non-violent act. But at what point does a non-violent and protected act cross the line- and do Jewish students have an expectation that they can move around campus without being harassed?
Many need to be replaced with people who promote free speech for all not just a subset,
I’m not suggesting for a second that colleges ban speech or demonstrations but remember that the private institutions can limit speech in any way they like.
Despite my earlier statement of “too little, too late,” I think Magill survives this. She exercised poor judgment and the optics are bad, but Penn can withstand losing a few big donors. The money has already been donated and, in most cases, spent. The endowment is still a healthy $21B. If managed well, Penn will be fine. Also, I cannot imagine the trustees want to reopen the search for a new president right now. It’s a long process to undertake during a time of campus upheaval.
Personally, I never thought Magill was the right person for the job, but my opinion is affected by the admiration I have for Amy Gutmann. Gutmann was more engaged with the campus community, always walking around and interacting with students, while Magill is more standoffish. That disconnect with the campus community may explain Magill’s missteps now but, as a seasoned administrator, she ought to know better.
Also a hard time for a search with Stanford and Yale both looking.
The right to free speech exists; after all, Nazis were granted the right to march in a Chicago suburb with a significant Holocaust survivor population (remember Skokie?), but that was in a PUBLIC space. University and college campuses are PRIVATE spaces, and the colleges do not have to tolerate hate speech rallies justifying and advocating for the murder of Jews just because they live in Israel. It’s clear how horribly damaging this is to campuses, and interferes with the purpose of the colleges - education. For this reason, it seems it would be wise right now to ban ALL demonstrations and rallies on campus. The organizers want to hold a hate speech rally in Philly? Let them apply to the city of Philadelphia for a permit to hold the rally in a public space, without disrupting the functioning of the campus, or menacing the students on campus.
My view is colleges should allow all forms of speech, hate or not, as long as it doesn’t directly or indirectly call for violence.
However, they should be vocal and explicit when such speech violates the university’s values.
I think that’s the main criticism of Magill. Not that she allowed the Palestianian Writers Festvial and platform but she was then mute in the face of their hate speech. If a group spewed hate about black people, you can bet the university would have condemned it. Jews, not so much.
Universities should not recognize student organizations that espouse hate or violence, or that align themselves or support others that do. Additionally, student organizations that attempt to shut down the free speech of or intimidate other students organizations should be sanctioned or dissolved.
There are some students who in their naivete, do not understand that the “cute” slogan “From the river to the sea” is- in fact- a cry to push every non-Arab (i.e. Jews and “Westerners” living West of the Jordan (river) INTO the Mediterranean (the sea). It is by definition a violent slogan. Hamas does not chant it with a caveat–these folks will be repatriated back to somewhere else-- it is what it is- literally.
This is why Magill is being criticized. If you take a laissez faire approach to certain types of hate speech, you’re all in.
Except, I’m not willing to easily absolve students from the consequences of their endorsements. Old enough to vote, carry guns, enlist in armed services,… – and old enough to apply to a job at my firm.
If you’re willing to put your name to a document without bothering to understand it, then, regardless of your grades, sorry can’t take that chance.
And if you put your name to a document and DID understand it, then too sorry, don’t want to be associated with that.
Even more so for positions at top firms where you’re expected to be at your “A game”, “naïveté” is not the attribute sought.
Bravo!
Responsibility, anyone?
Agree 100% with everything you have written. But I have seen some of these rallies and it is clear that some (not all) of the students are just there because their “intersectionality” means that they ALWAYS root for the underdog, which they believe to be a group of murderous terrorists who have exploited their own people for financial and political gain.
But if you ask them “why are you chanting a violent ideology” they will tell you that these Hamas slogans are NOT violent. Until you explain it to them- yes, they are encouraging, inciting, and proclaiming that the “land” will be cleared by whatever means. And that the Thai, Nepalese, Filipino citizens who were massacred on October 7th-- what’s to happen to all of them during this violent overthrow?
The LGBTQ activists who have thrown their support to the Palestinian movement- when they’d been thrown in jail or worse in some of the “progressive” countries they claim to support-- yes, I call it naivete.
I applaud the “grownups in the room” who are now calling the bluff of these college kids. They want to be affiliated with the oppressed Hamas fighters-- but not if it means their White Shoe law firm offer gets revoked. What was the saying back when we were in college- “money talks, BS walks”?
They need to better understand the complexities of their Venn diagrams. Hard to be a warrior for so many things…
Yet, none of this is relevant to the fact that peoples are entitled to their own determination of customs, religions, laws - and territorial integrity - even if they are different from our own (sometimes rather questionable) societal standards and ethics.
Consequently, our assessment (or rather: judgement) of the quality/sensibility of these factors carry no weight in the current context.
We are veering way off topic here. Again, please use the other threads about the situation in Israel.
Maybe some of these Penn alumni should start to send checks to Hillsdale College, and other schools where there is still free speech and the radicals have not taken over.
You are right. But the point being made is that these protesters, in most cases, are not the “peoples” and are likely very ignorant of the future they are protesting to bring about on behalf of said peoples.