Cancel culture in Higher Ed

[Langue_doc]

U.S.C. Cancels Valedictorian's Speech After Jewish Groups Object
The university cited security concerns at the graduation. But the student, who is Muslim, said the school was "succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice."

[dismalist]

U.S.C. Cancels Valedictorian's Speech After Jewish Groups Object
The university cited security concerns at the graduation. But the student, who is Muslim, said the school was "succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice."

USC is a private institution. It can do whatever the hell it wants with regard to who speaks and what is spoken. Compete well and thrive; compete badly and die.

Competition between private places ensures that we get viewpoint diversity. There is no problem.

[marshwiggle]

U.S.C. Cancels Valedictorian's Speech After Jewish Groups Object
The university cited security concerns at the graduation. But the student, who is Muslim, said the school was "succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice."

USC is a private institution. It can do whatever the hell it wants with regard to who speaks and what is spoken. Compete well and thrive; compete badly and die.

Competition between private places ensures that we get viewpoint diversity. There is no problem.

It's not good for students if choosing an institution basically means choosing a single viewpoint for their entire education. When that is the case, students' intellectual development will be basically stunted at the high school level, since what they get after that will be a reflection of the choice that they made based on it.

[dismalist]

U.S.C. Cancels Valedictorian's Speech After Jewish Groups Object
The university cited security concerns at the graduation. But the student, who is Muslim, said the school was "succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice."

USC is a private institution. It can do whatever the hell it wants with regard to who speaks and what is spoken. Compete well and thrive; compete badly and die.

Competition between private places ensures that we get viewpoint diversity. There is no problem.

It's not good for students if choosing an institution basically means choosing a single viewpoint for their entire education. When that is the case, students' intellectual development will be basically stunted at the high school level, since what they get after that will be a reflection of the choice that they made based on it.

Well, yes. And it's likely stunted earlier. :-)

[Wahoo Redux]

Refer to the Cancelling Dr. Suess Thread for a year-or-so's worth of this behavior.  There is nothing particularly unusual here.

[apl68]

A class valedictorian choosing the occasion to weigh in on a tremendously emotive and polarizing issue to a captive audience--however keenly the student may personally feel about it--creates a no-win situation for all involved.  It's an abuse of the student's position.

[spork]

A class valedictorian choosing the occasion to weigh in on a tremendously emotive and polarizing issue to a captive audience--however keenly the student may personally feel about it--creates a no-win situation for all involved.  It's an abuse of the student's position.

I'd also say USC's valedictorian-selection process is a logical no-win end point of the everyone gets a trophy/failure is to be avoided at all costs mentality. Makes me glad that I went to the trade school down the river from Harvard that, unlike Harvard, doesn't do valedictorians, honorary degrees, or legacy admissions.

[waterboy]

Perhaps I missed this, but was there some understanding of what she planned to say that scared off the admins?

[marshwiggle]

Perhaps I missed this, but was there some understanding of what she planned to say that scared off the admins?

Her previous social media presence:

It cited her social media bio that included a link to a page that calls Zionism a "racist settler-colonial ideology."

Interesting bit:

Anuj Desai, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, suggested that Ms. Tabassum could have legal grounds to sue, particularly in light of California law that supports students' First Amendment rights.

"If the reason they're removing her is because of her views, then that just feels much more like a free speech problem," he said. "Ordinarily we would say, beef up the security."

But Mr. Desai said that the university could be warranted in shutting down her speech, if it learned that Ms. Tabassum planned to use the address as a forum, as graduation speakers sometimes do, to discuss their outrage over issues of the day.

[waterboy]

Apparently I was blind - thanks!

[Langue_doc]

CUNY Law School, still reeling from last year's furor, has yet to find a venue for this year's graduation. Scroll all the way down to see that the location is TBA.

[marshwiggle]

York University faculty group recommends defining support of Israel as 'racism'

A York University faculty committee has recommended that the school henceforth define any acknowledgement of Israel's existence as evidence of "anti-Palestinian racism."

According to an April 5 "recommendations report" leaked to National Post, an official committee within York's Department of Politics has proposed that any defence of Israel be viewed as "anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, and anti-Arab."

An odd addition:

"The struggle for Palestinian self-determination will support the liberation of all humans and non-humans from colonial oppression," it reads.

[dismalist]

The kind of activism to sway institutions to support certain political goals serves to destroy those institutions.

[Langue_doc]

What to Know About the Turmoil at Colleges Over the Israel-Hamas War
On campus, the debate over free speech and antisemitism has only become more charged.

Columbia Leaders Grilled at Antisemitism Hearing Over Faculty Comments
The university's president, Nemat Shafik, agreed that some professors had crossed the line as she testified before House lawmakers on questions of student safety and free speech. 

[apl68]

Don't know much about the Columbia situation, but evidently things have gotten pretty hot on campus there over the issue.  One has to feel sorry for their leadership caught up in this.  At least their head has so far learned lessons from the spectacular career suicide that occurred over at Harvard.