The gentlemen in the figure… two of whom are dressed in black… all of whom look slightly intimidating, and all of whom are calling for their opponents to be silenced, to me look suspiciously like… fascists.
I find this entire topic of discussion wildly depressing as it feels there’s no true solution to this pervasive culture infecting society and education. The last quote of the article regarding the professor not being a professor but merely an obstacle for these students to use. How can this be reversed when every level of governance seems infected by this? It doesn’t even seem as if university deans have any power, as the students can mobilize much larger numbers and shout them down, and they’re afraid of going against the grain now. But what happens when all these graduates move into the working world and they only received good grades due to fear from the professor? We won’t know whose competent or not, we’ll have people wildly unqualified for roles and to remove them will be nearly impossible. This truly scares me, maybe more than it should, but it feels pressing. These guys truly are the fascists
Jeremy Bray
1 year ago
Being respectful of stupid opinions is certainly not a desirable aim for a University. What most Universities lack is sufficiently robust criticism of the absurd opinions not only of the students but also many of the lecturers and administrators. As usual another harmful proposal is put forward in the name of safety.
Last edited 1 year ago by Jeremy Bray
Jon Hawksley
1 year ago
You go to university to be challenged and the reward comes from pattern completion as you organise your thoughts. You should not need to be praised. It is enough to make a contribution to a team that values that contribution. Requiring praise is to surrender your capacity to set your own objectives and assess your own performance. It might help to kick-start a child to make an effort but it holds back an adult. Ditto cosseting.
One problem with that. As it says any the end, the majority of students at university now are there for one reason – to get a degree. If they are from an elite background and at an elite institution they are also looking for affirmation and networking opportunities. The background to this a serious elite overproduction, way too many graduates for the number of positions available and increasingly desperate intra-elite competition.
The problem is not an overproduction of elites; rather, it is the processing of many young people of average intelligence and capability who believe themselves to be elites and who rack up debts they will never pay back.
Peter Spurrier
1 year ago
I thought Cambridge dons had already had a vote on whether they should have to respect other people’s opinions and had voted against. We should, of course, respect people’s right to have ridiculous opinions, but we shouldn’t have to respect the opinions.
If most of what I read about the woke domination of universities is true, then the government should be engaged in an energetic campaign against it. For one thing, there should be no more government subsidies for courses or institutions which are responsible for one-sided left wing indoctrination.
Apparently the HR department is having crack at overturning the last result.
Steve Jolly
1 year ago
Universities and professors are in a difficult positions here in the US. Economics trumps everything but biology and lest we forget, students are also customers, and while the customer isn’t always right, he or she is still the customer, and the customer pays for what the customer wants. if the students/customers want safe spaces and rubber stamp degrees, they’ll ultimately pay the institutions that provide that. This is obviously bad for everyone, including the students themselves, who were not parented well enough to know better, but good luck stopping this train wreck.
Mike Cook
1 year ago
The document says it seeks to create “a safe, welcoming and inclusive community which nurtures a culture of mutual respect and courtesy”. I wonder if this is intended to apply to Jews as well? It certainly does not across the pond where the opposite is true.
The document says it seeks to create “a safe, welcoming and inclusive community which nurtures a culture of mutual respect and courtesy”.
But only by excluding people and opinions they don’t like ! According to some arbitrary set of prejudices. Which will change over time.
As many have already noted, if you’re going to university because you want to live in a comfort zone, you’re wasting your time. If you don’t think that your teachers have different and more developed ideas and you aren’t open to learning, developing and changing your mind, what on earth are you doing there ? The same comments apply to the dons.
If people want these non-learning, comfort zone universities, they should fund them themselves.
“…a safe, welcoming and inclusive community which nurtures a culture of mutual respect and courtesy” – well, to achieve that, you need a set of agreed rules and common ground. Yet that’s exactly what so many activists want to undermine and eradicate, usually by overtly racist argument masquerading as progressive outrage.
In addition to this, the political left’s ongoing blinkered obsession with Palestinian liberation enables a facile oversimplification of a complex issue. The resulting straw man either results in overt anti-semitism, or at the least provides a rich fertiliser for its growth. Reality be damned: the Party line is the truth. Plus ça change…
Richard Craven
1 year ago
“I was told about how Doe read aloud a passage from a Frederick Douglass book that included the n-word.”
The n-word is “ni55er”. It’s a disgusting racist epithet which nobody should use. But we most certainly should mention it rather than relying on greasy circumlocutions like “the n-word”.
The gentlemen in the figure… two of whom are dressed in black… all of whom look slightly intimidating, and all of whom are calling for their opponents to be silenced, to me look suspiciously like… fascists.
You are losing me on the looking slightly intimidating part.
I don’t think that you understand what a Fasict is under the modern definition – it is anyone who dsiagrees with you.
I find this entire topic of discussion wildly depressing as it feels there’s no true solution to this pervasive culture infecting society and education. The last quote of the article regarding the professor not being a professor but merely an obstacle for these students to use. How can this be reversed when every level of governance seems infected by this? It doesn’t even seem as if university deans have any power, as the students can mobilize much larger numbers and shout them down, and they’re afraid of going against the grain now. But what happens when all these graduates move into the working world and they only received good grades due to fear from the professor? We won’t know whose competent or not, we’ll have people wildly unqualified for roles and to remove them will be nearly impossible. This truly scares me, maybe more than it should, but it feels pressing. These guys truly are the fascists
Being respectful of stupid opinions is certainly not a desirable aim for a University. What most Universities lack is sufficiently robust criticism of the absurd opinions not only of the students but also many of the lecturers and administrators. As usual another harmful proposal is put forward in the name of safety.
You go to university to be challenged and the reward comes from pattern completion as you organise your thoughts. You should not need to be praised. It is enough to make a contribution to a team that values that contribution. Requiring praise is to surrender your capacity to set your own objectives and assess your own performance. It might help to kick-start a child to make an effort but it holds back an adult. Ditto cosseting.
One problem with that. As it says any the end, the majority of students at university now are there for one reason – to get a degree. If they are from an elite background and at an elite institution they are also looking for affirmation and networking opportunities. The background to this a serious elite overproduction, way too many graduates for the number of positions available and increasingly desperate intra-elite competition.
The problem is not an overproduction of elites; rather, it is the processing of many young people of average intelligence and capability who believe themselves to be elites and who rack up debts they will never pay back.
I thought Cambridge dons had already had a vote on whether they should have to respect other people’s opinions and had voted against. We should, of course, respect people’s right to have ridiculous opinions, but we shouldn’t have to respect the opinions.
If most of what I read about the woke domination of universities is true, then the government should be engaged in an energetic campaign against it. For one thing, there should be no more government subsidies for courses or institutions which are responsible for one-sided left wing indoctrination.
Apparently the HR department is having crack at overturning the last result.
Universities and professors are in a difficult positions here in the US. Economics trumps everything but biology and lest we forget, students are also customers, and while the customer isn’t always right, he or she is still the customer, and the customer pays for what the customer wants. if the students/customers want safe spaces and rubber stamp degrees, they’ll ultimately pay the institutions that provide that. This is obviously bad for everyone, including the students themselves, who were not parented well enough to know better, but good luck stopping this train wreck.
The document says it seeks to create “a safe, welcoming and inclusive community which nurtures a culture of mutual respect and courtesy”.
I wonder if this is intended to apply to Jews as well? It certainly does not across the pond where the opposite is true.
The document says it seeks to create “a safe, welcoming and inclusive community which nurtures a culture of mutual respect and courtesy”.
But only by excluding people and opinions they don’t like ! According to some arbitrary set of prejudices. Which will change over time.
As many have already noted, if you’re going to university because you want to live in a comfort zone, you’re wasting your time. If you don’t think that your teachers have different and more developed ideas and you aren’t open to learning, developing and changing your mind, what on earth are you doing there ? The same comments apply to the dons.
If people want these non-learning, comfort zone universities, they should fund them themselves.
“…a safe, welcoming and inclusive community which nurtures a culture of mutual respect and courtesy” – well, to achieve that, you need a set of agreed rules and common ground. Yet that’s exactly what so many activists want to undermine and eradicate, usually by overtly racist argument masquerading as progressive outrage.
In addition to this, the political left’s ongoing blinkered obsession with Palestinian liberation enables a facile oversimplification of a complex issue. The resulting straw man either results in overt anti-semitism, or at the least provides a rich fertiliser for its growth. Reality be damned: the Party line is the truth. Plus ça change…
“I was told about how Doe read aloud a passage from a Frederick Douglass book that included the n-word.”
The n-word is “ni55er”. It’s a disgusting racist epithet which nobody should use. But we most certainly should mention it rather than relying on greasy circumlocutions like “the n-word”.