Universities are battlegrounds
Berkeley faculty forgot how to fight
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/civil-rights/333175-universities-are-battlegrounds-berkeley-faculty-have
The People’s Republic of Berkeley, with its capital at UC Berkeley, was once ground zero in the battle to save the soul of free speech in America. That was over one-half century ago. But today, some view UC Berkeley as a bastion of reactionary political correctness.
Recently, Ann Coulter, the enfant terrible of the conservative movement, “canceled” her speaking engagement at UC Berkeley, bewailing free speech had been “crushed by thugs.” She inveighed against the university for its namby-pamby vacillation. She also blasted her conservative student sponsors for ditching her and “joining the other team.” Some prominent liberals voiced support for Coulter.
Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks explained Coulter was never persona non grata on campus but “our police force does not believe (the event) venue to be protectable,” adding “a speaker’s presence on campus” in February “ignited violent conflict and significant damage to campus property.” He fingered unnamed “groups and individuals from the extreme ends of the political spectrum” for the controversy. He hectored, “This is a university, not a battlefield.”
In 1964, Mario Savio, Jack Weinberg and others defiantly mobilized Berkeley students in the cause of campus activism, free speech and academic freedom. They were joined by a thousand strong faculty, making Berkeley a national symbol of campus free speech and protest. By contrast, the stony silence of Berkeley’s faculty majority in 2017 is deafening. In addition to stopping Coulter’s speech, the vocal minority who is speaking up also demanded conservative gadfly Milo Yiannopoulos be banned from campus in January. In the case of Yiannopoulos, the opposition became violent.
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(CrossPosted By: Zim.)
Mad Poet Strikes Again.
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