
Campus protests should stop at the door of the classroom - pavel_lishin
https://aeon.co/ideas/campus-protests-should-stop-at-the-door-of-the-classroom
======
eesmith
The article says: "Of late, student activists have found themselves provoked
by disagreements with guest speakers whom faculty members have invited to
speak to classes"

This is not something new. Here's a description of students at Columbia who
wanted to keep the war criminal Kissinger from teaching there:
[https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/5/10/keeping-
kissing...](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/5/10/keeping-kissinger-
out-of-columbias-classrooms/)

The article says: "What universities must insist on, however, is that student
protests be compatible with the larger functioning of the university; they
should not hinder the ability of anyone on campus to pursue their own
activities or the central mission of the university in advancing and
disseminating knowledge."

That link I gave to The Crimson suggests otherwise, saying (emphasis mine):

> If the 1960s have any lesson for us, it is that the university serves the
> state and that academic freedom, when raised by them, _is merely an attempt
> to obfuscate the issues_. In any event, academic freedom is a myth. The
> universities are free and open--the source of their funds, the social and
> ecnomic position of the trustees, and the manner in which they are run, all
> indicate that the university is responsive to the needs and requirements of
> the powers that be in Washington and Wall Street. The opening of former
> Columbia President Grayson Kirk's files in 1968 confirmed this.

The article says: "By disrupting professors from teaching their courses as
they think best, and preventing other students from participating in such
courses as they wish, activists assert their own superior authority to dictate
the limits of academic freedom and to demarcate the boundaries of acceptable
intellectual enquiry on campus."

Sometimes, you know, the students are right. As a hypothetical, if a teacher
decides that using irrelevant sexually charged materials is the right way to
teach a group theory course, then the students _should_ protest.

