Free Speech on Campus
Thoughtful and fact-based essay on campus free speech victories and challenges, some from the supposed "victims."
https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-legal-promise-and-sobering-reality
I'm a major David French fan. My own campus is not exactly the University of North Carolina, but I have run into these tensions. Last year a drag parade/show was offered to the students and advertised on the campus media (the most reliable being the "stall wall," which I've also seen called the Daily Flush or the Flush Flash--"Everybody knows because everybody goes."
I raised a concern about this because I did not see how it was necessarily a positive depiction of youth who struggle with the sexual identity. Most are not interested in the flamboyance of that lifestyle, and they may not be comfortable with their struggle to be or not be "gay" being confused in the more public mind with drag shows. I also wasn't sure how donors in this conservative areas would feel about it, but I was more concerned with the stereotype confirmation. I also thought some might attend to be cruel. And it's not that they had no right to do it as much as I was unsure of the value. However, my concerns fell on, if not deaf, uninterested ears, and the event took place that year and this. How many attended, I don't know. And life went on. Apparently such programs exist at other universities. Please read this as a statement of my thought processes and not a criticism, per se, of an institution.
On the other hand, I am the faculty sponsor of a religious organization. Our denomination doesn't allow us to take any money (although we use power, the Internet, and space and some resources like paper) for programs. The college would give us some under certain conditions, but we don't ask for much beyond what's needed to exist.
The drag show was not so much viewpoint discrimination but it was supporting a program that many students probably would not like their fees being used for; our students don't much like the student activity fees anyway and would prefer to keep their money, but these fees seem to be an inevitable part of higher education funding, for better or worse. Beyond this example, though, most of the student activity funding goes for pretty innocuous stuff, and there's a good bit of freedom. I notice conservative faculty are much less likely to spout off their opinions than are the progressive ones. I don't feel the need to, actually. I'm not there for that purpose.
Of course, many professors define "critical thinking," that all-purpose word, as arriving at a viewpoint that agrees with mine.
https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-legal-promise-and-sobering-reality
I'm a major David French fan. My own campus is not exactly the University of North Carolina, but I have run into these tensions. Last year a drag parade/show was offered to the students and advertised on the campus media (the most reliable being the "stall wall," which I've also seen called the Daily Flush or the Flush Flash--"Everybody knows because everybody goes."
I raised a concern about this because I did not see how it was necessarily a positive depiction of youth who struggle with the sexual identity. Most are not interested in the flamboyance of that lifestyle, and they may not be comfortable with their struggle to be or not be "gay" being confused in the more public mind with drag shows. I also wasn't sure how donors in this conservative areas would feel about it, but I was more concerned with the stereotype confirmation. I also thought some might attend to be cruel. And it's not that they had no right to do it as much as I was unsure of the value. However, my concerns fell on, if not deaf, uninterested ears, and the event took place that year and this. How many attended, I don't know. And life went on. Apparently such programs exist at other universities. Please read this as a statement of my thought processes and not a criticism, per se, of an institution.
On the other hand, I am the faculty sponsor of a religious organization. Our denomination doesn't allow us to take any money (although we use power, the Internet, and space and some resources like paper) for programs. The college would give us some under certain conditions, but we don't ask for much beyond what's needed to exist.
The drag show was not so much viewpoint discrimination but it was supporting a program that many students probably would not like their fees being used for; our students don't much like the student activity fees anyway and would prefer to keep their money, but these fees seem to be an inevitable part of higher education funding, for better or worse. Beyond this example, though, most of the student activity funding goes for pretty innocuous stuff, and there's a good bit of freedom. I notice conservative faculty are much less likely to spout off their opinions than are the progressive ones. I don't feel the need to, actually. I'm not there for that purpose.
Of course, many professors define "critical thinking," that all-purpose word, as arriving at a viewpoint that agrees with mine.
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