University

This arcticle has been long kept in my PDA. Interesting article about university as a public institution....

Unity in diversity

If university still means unity in diversity, what are we to make of the illiberal censoring and banning of university Christian Unions (CUs) by student unions (SUs) in Exeter, Edinburgh and Birmingham? Is it simply the case that a few, short-sighted political hacks have effectively hijacked these SUs and are seeking to take away basic freedom of speech, belief and association? Or is there something even more disturbing at work in our HE institutions?

Wendy Kaminer, the American social critic who spoke last month at the Battle of Ideas festival in London, believes today's liberals in the academy have become illiberal authoritarians: "In some universities, there is a creeping culture of conformism, a sense that certain ideas are beyond the pale and thus must be crushed by the long arm of the censor (often, these days, a university-appointed ethics committee or a self-righteous SU)." She cited the Sussex University SU, which banned the Daily Mail for being "bigoted". This action provoked one student to complain that the union is "treating us like babies and it's offensive".

Edinburgh University authorities have banned the CU from meeting on campus to discuss sexual ethics. Why? Because the orthodox Christian view is deemed offensive to homosexuals. This desire for safety by preventing open dialogue is a reminder of Vaclav Havel's chilling description of communist tyranny as authorities taking away liberty and bending everyone to their own will and purpose. "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety," observed Benjamin Franklin, "deserve neither freedom or safety."

The role of SUs, part-funded by the students they should be impartially serving, should not be to promote their own (often sterile, humourless and politically correct) agendas. Rather, they should provide facilities and resources to students of different interests and religious beliefs.

However, far from being a centre of free speech and debate, some universities are becoming a breeding ground for new forms of censorship and conformism. What is shocking is that it is the liberals themselves who have unquestioningly bought into ideas of "hate speech" and "harmful speech", and are banning and censoring all who fail to conform to their own definition of equality, opportunity and tolerance.

What will prospective employers think of universities that churn out students with such faddish, brittle and incurious world views? Real tolerance presupposes judgment. You have to believe you are right and the other person is wrong in order to exercise tolerance. If you don't think someone is wrong, there is nothing to tolerate and so the only thing promoted is indifference. GK Chesterton once said, "The purpose of an open mind is the same as that of an open mouth - to close it again on something solid."

If "open-mindedness" is being defined as a refusal to make judgments about religious truth and sexual ethics (for instance), then we are prone to contracting a form of intellectual lockjaw. This condition prevents us from ever discriminating between goodness and evil, truth and error.

It is at this point that Britain's 350 CUs, who together form the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF), can help show us the way. CUs are sufficiently confident in their position to hold open lunchtime dialogues at which crowds of students of all beliefs, and none, get a chance to voice their objections to the speaker. It is this confidence in the ability of truth to vindicate itself, and the resultant commitment to promote freedom of belief and speech, that has recently earned the Sheffield University CU the accolade (awarded by a fair-minded SU) "the university's most accessible faith society".

Freedom of belief, association and expression - which has been denied to Exeter, Edinburgh and Birmingham University CUs - is not only the precondition for a civilised society but the only way people can reach their full potential and thrive. Havel observed that it is the act of depriving people of the freedom of assembly, speech and association that triggers any regime's inevitable demise. What is at stake here is the existence of universities as we know them.

Long live freedom - long live the university!

EducationGuardian

Tuesday November 28 2006