Just realized I was silencing the wrong speakers at our campus event

I always shut down any controversial speaker ASAP because I thought it protected students. Then a professor showed me the university's 2019 policy document - it clearly says we can't deny a platform based on viewpoint. Now I'm wondering if I've been violating our own rules this whole time. Anyone else dealt with that split between safety and actual policy?

2 comments

2 Comments

abbyc3315d ago

Oh man, I've totally been there. I cancelled a speaker last semester before actually checking our rules and felt like such an idiot when I saw the policy said the exact opposite of what I'd been doing.

alices1615d ago

Did your campus policy have that weird loophole about "emergency exceptions"? My friend at State actually booked a guy who was super controversial but legit not breaking any rules, and her supervisor overrode her without even reading the policy. She found out later the policy had this vague clause about "campus safety risks" that basically gave administrators total control. Felt real bad for her watching the whole thing unravel at a department meeting where she got called out for following the rules too literally.