ACTA's Must-Reads
« Virginia Tech board must protect faculty members' academic freedom | Main | Historical illiteracy...among tour guides? »
Here we go again...
They've followed the "speaker controversy" script to a tee at Boston College. You know, the same one that has played out at Nebraska, Columbia, UT-Austin, and on so many other campuses. Someone at the university -- a student group, a professor, or maybe a department -- invites a controversial speaker. Or to be more precise, a speaker to whose views someone, either at the university or nearby, predictably will object. Eventually, the word gets out and the usual brouhaha ensues. After many irate calls, angry letters, and vitriolic emails, the blindsided administration cancels the scheduled talk, citing "security concerns." The pundits weigh in and either chalk up a defeat for free speech or a victory for moral decency. Nothing is settled, nobody really wins, and the stage is set for the same circus to play itself out somewhere else. Even when the ending changes and the university decides to go ahead with the scheduled talk, the debate itself never advances beyond the usual fault lines.
At Boston College, it is William Ayers whose speaking invitation has just been rescinded. The particulars of the controversy surrounding the former Sixties radical turned education professor are only of secondary interest. What really matters is the failure, once again, to distinguish between the wisdom to be exercised in the choice of speakers and the right to speak once an invitation has been extended. As things stand, too many universities ignore the former and fail to uphold the latter.
In recently published pieces in The New Republic and The Philadelphia Inquirer, ACTA has urged universities to develop more comprehensive speaker policies and practices. For starters, we suggested university leaders should collect information on scheduled speakers and then fill in the gaps so as to ensure there is a robust exchange of ideas on campus. That is good advice for any board, not just BC's. In the meantime, rather than give in to the heckler's veto, we exhort boards and administrators to "stand up to outside pressures that diminish students' right to read, listen, speak, and think for themselves." It is a shame that BC -- like many others before it -- has not done this.
Posted by David Azerrad on March 30, 2009 at March 30, 2009 04:12 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.goactablog.org/blog/mt-tb.cgi/584