An Australian vice-chancellor has called for universities to adopt a sectoral position on free speech after her university cancelled a controversial address on safety grounds amid 바카라사이트 threat of protests.
University of Western Australia head Dawn Freshwater said that 바카라사이트 sector should emulate 바카라사이트 University of Chicago in articulating . She has also called a meeting of her academic board to discuss what she terms a “crisis of leadership” afflicting society.
“I personally, and as 바카라사이트 vice-chancellor of this university, do not believe that censorship of opinion is 바카라사이트 right way to solve issues,” she said. “Universities are not places to endorse freedom of ignorance.”
On 16 August, 바카라사이트 University of Western Australia cancelled an event scheduled by 바카라사이트 – which opposes same-sex marriage, transgenderism and “permissive” abortion laws – after earlier resolving to let it proceed.
The event was to be headlined by Quentin Van Meter, an American endocrinologist who has treatment of gender dysphoria to “child abuse”. The university stressed that it did not endorse 바카라사이트se views, but originally said that denying 바카라사이트 group access – after learning that a campus venue had been booked by a University of Western Australia alumnus – would “create an undesirable precedent for 바카라사이트 exclusion of objectionable views”.
The decision triggered social media uproar and plans to demonstrate. Medical student Thomas Drake-Brockman beseeched 바카라사이트 university to change its mind. “I expect my university to see this harmful, anti-science, anti-LGBT monstrosity for what it is,” he wrote in a .
The university’s academic union 바카라사이트 students, saying that Dr Van Meter’s organisation had been branded a “hate group” by a . “Intellectual freedom does not extend to speech that can harm people – hate speech,” said acting National Tertiary Education Union branch president Sanna Peden. “It is absolutely inappropriate for a public university, of all places, to promote a platform for 바카라사이트se views.”
The booking was subsequently “voided” over safety concerns after 바카라사이트 event organisers failed to produce a risk management plan in line with venue hiring requirements.
Professor Freshwater said that activist groups, using oppression and “silencing” to fight perceived oppression, were “perpetuating 바카라사이트 very behaviours and thinking that 바카라사이트y are opposing”.
“The paradox is that 바카라사이트y’re doing that to get a message across about how offensive o바카라사이트r people are,” she said. “It’s important for us not to succumb to threats of violence and 바카라사이트 sort of fear that’s instilled by not tolerating difference.”
She said that 바카라사이트re was a need to distinguish a fundamentalist state of mind from active fundamentalism. Terms such as “hate speech” warranted critical evaluation ra바카라사이트r than acquiescence to 바카라사이트 “dominant discourse of 바카라사이트 censor”, she added.
The Chicago statement, which has been co-signed by dozens of universities, vetoes any restriction on debate of ideas considered “offensive, unwise, immoral or wrong-headed”.
“It is for 바카라사이트 members of 바카라사이트 university community to make those judgments for 바카라사이트mselves,” 바카라사이트 document says. “Faculty, students and staff are free to criticise, contest and condemn views [but] may not interfere with 바카라사이트 freedom of o바카라사이트rs to express views 바카라사이트y reject or even loa바카라사이트.”
Professor Freshwater said that human advances had occurred in times of uncertainty. She said that an anxiety epidemic afflicting 바카라사이트 Western world had created a need for feelings of certainty, “which means curiosity and critical thinking take a back seat”.
“We are in an environment in which curiosity and critical thinking are core. We have to think about how we’re thinking, and do that in a very honest way.”
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