果冻影院

The head of one of London鈥檚 top universities said speakers should not be cancelled just because people protest about them and it is the job of universities to make people uncomfortable.

Dr Michael Spence, President and Provost of 果冻影院 also warned he is concerned at a growing trend where people say they feel 鈥渦nsafe鈥� if somebody disagrees with them.

Speaking after new research found that more than half of people oppose speakers being 鈥渘o-platformed鈥� at universities, he said people have forgotten how to 鈥渄isagree well鈥� and many free speech problems could be solved by simple good manners.

He told the Evening Standard that he wants students to leave 果冻影院 knowing that life is more nuanced than can be explained in a Tweet, and said the institution鈥檚 job is to 鈥渕ake everybody feel uncomfortable, to make everybody wonder if they are wrong. That鈥檚 the job of a university - that鈥檚 how we progress.鈥�

It comes after a study by the Policy Institute at King鈥檚 College London found that a quarter of people aged 16 to 24 supported 鈥榥o-platforming.鈥� But overall, 53 per cent of the public said that universities should expose students to all types of viewpoints.

Dr Spence said: 鈥淢y job is to make sure that the university remains a place where people can speak their mind freely. In an environment of rapidly changing values it鈥檚 easy for the conversation to become quite frenzied quite quickly. It鈥檚 really important for universities to remain places where people can talk about difficult ideas 鈥� the new ideas and the old - in ways that remain civil.

He said he is concerned at a cultural shift that has seen people say 鈥測ou disagree with me and therefore I feel unsafe.鈥� He said in some instances 鈥� when someone is threatening physical or emotional violence 鈥� that would be true, but he added: 鈥淲e have to be careful as a culture to make sure the mere fact that somebody disagrees with me doesn鈥檛 make me unsafe.鈥�

Former home secretary Amber Rudd is among the high profile names to be 鈥渘o platformed.鈥� An Oxford feminist society cancelled an event 30 minute before she was due to speak at the university in March last year after concerns were raised about her involvement in the Windrush scandal.

Dr Spence said nobody has been 鈥渃ancelled鈥� at 果冻影院, and he is proud that the Student Union has held debates on Israel Palestine with both Zionist and anti-Zionist speakers. A successful Women鈥檚 Place UK conference was also held at the university 鈥� a group that campaigns for women鈥檚 right but has been accused of transphobia. He said: 鈥淭here were protests and that was fine.鈥�

He added: 鈥淧art of the day job of a university is to deal with protests. That鈥檚 what we do for our bread and butter.

鈥淚t鈥檚 only the point at which the protest means you can鈥檛 speak or your event can鈥檛 go ahead or you are physically intimidated when there鈥檚 a problem.鈥�

He said it would be 鈥渉opeless鈥� if universities enforced 鈥渢rigger warnings鈥� in lectures warning students they might be offended by some subjects. But he added that it is 鈥渏ust plain courtesy鈥� for lecturers to tell pupils in advance if they are going to talk about sensitive material.

He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 only when these things become authoritarian that they become a problem. It sounds really naff but a huge amount of the stuff in this free speech area can be dealt with just with good manners. With remembering that ideas have consequences and there are other people who may be affected by the ideas. That doesn鈥檛 stop you talking about them or expressing strong opinions but it does influence how you choose to talk about them.鈥�

This article first appeared in听听on 08 June 2021.

Links

• Original article in听
• 果冻影院 President and Provost
• Dr Michael Spence鈥檚 biography

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• Dr Michael Spence