I just counted 17 speaker cancellations at big schools this semester alone

I was looking at a list from a free speech group, and the number really hit me. That's 17 planned talks that didn't happen, mostly over protests about the speaker's past comments or views. It happened at places like UCLA and a small liberal arts college in Vermont. I get why students protest, but it feels like we're just shutting down talks instead of having the hard debates. Has your school had one of these cancellations, and what was the reason given?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_tyler1mo ago

Saw a piece about a speaker getting shut down at a college in New England. The school said it was for safety reasons after some protests got loud. It makes you wonder if the real reason was just to avoid a tough talk. How do we get better at hearing people out instead of just turning them away?

ryan7191mo ago

That school spent over $100k on security for that speaker.

jaken2328d ago

And it's not just colleges, you see it everywhere now. Like my local town hall won't let certain groups book the community room anymore (they say it's a "liability thing"). It feels like we're just building more walls instead of learning how to talk, even when it's messy. We're so worried about things getting loud that we're forgetting how to listen.