Academy of Ideas

Cotton-wool campus?


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When University College London’s students’

union banned a Nietzsche reading group in March, on the grounds that
discussions about right-wing philosophers could encourage fascism and
endanger the student body, many saw it as the reductio ad absurdum
of student-union bans in recent years. These have included bans on
Robin Thicke’s pop hit ‘Blurred Lines’, on the grounds that it might be
distressing for victims of sexual assault, as well as everything from
the Sun (thanks to Page 3) to ‘offensive’ T-shirts depicting
Jesus and the prophet Mohammed in cartoon form. So have British
universities become bastions of politically correct censorship? Or are
such restrictions - enacted by elected unions rather than the state - a
welcome attempt to ensure universities are safe spaces for all students?

Student politics has long involved political boycotts, going back to

campus bans on Barclays Bank in the 1980s (for operating in apartheid
South Africa), Nestlé products in the 1990s (for promoting baby milk in
the developing world), or Israeli goods in the Noughties (in protest at
the treatment of Palestinians). But for all their limitations, these
campaigns were an attempt to engage with the world of politics outside
the university. In the past few years, however, there seems to have been
a trend towards student politics turning inwards. Students’ unions have
instead become increasingly concerned with making campuses safe from
potentially hostile outsiders, by enacting ‘no platform’ policies, first
for ‘fascists’ and later other offensive speakers, from Islamists to
radical feminists.

For some this is a progressive move because student unions have a

duty to ensure that all students feel safe on campus, that no one feels
excluded from campus activities and that no offence is caused by those
activities. It is argued that women, LGBT and ethnic-minority students
are often especially vulnerable and must be protected from intimidation
and discomfort. Others feel the unions are engaged in acts of censorship
which undermine academic freedom and treat students as children rather
than adults. Do ‘safe space’ policies empower or infantilise students?
Are today’s students simply not as robust as previous generations and so
need protecting in ways their parents’ generation did not? Or have
unions simply become more sensitive to the needs of their more
vulnerable students?

Speakers
Tom Bailey
recent graduate, UCL; regular columnist, spiked
Ellamay Russell
postgraduate student, University of Sussex; writer, spiked
Michael Segalov
communications officer, University of Sussex Students’ Union; freelance journalist.
Harriet Williamson
columnist and blogger
Chair
Joel Cohen
administrator, Debating Matters; freelance writer
...more
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