{"id":38469,"date":"2017-04-10T13:05:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T20:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=38469"},"modified":"2017-04-10T13:05:13","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T20:05:13","slug":"universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not ‘safe spaces’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"safe-spaces-colleges\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Trigger warnings, \u201csafe spaces\u201d and \u201cno platforming\u201d have all made headlines recently as signs of the deterioration of free speech on campuses in the US. What rarely makes news, though, is another troubling aspect of censorship: so-called bias response teams.<\/p>\n

Like a throwback to China\u2019s Red Guards, the student militia who turned on their teachers during Mao\u2019s Cultural Revolution, students at US universities are reporting on other students or academics they deem to have exhibited bias. What exactly classifies as bias is nebulous. It can range from categories already in discrimination statutes to speech that shows a political affiliation.\u00a0Index on Censorship<\/em><\/a> magazine reports on this issue in an upcoming feature, \u201cDegrees of Separation\u201d.<\/p>\n

As part of the report, author Jan Fox, the magazine\u2019s Los Angeles-based editor, spoke to Gad Saad, a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and the University of California, Irvine, who said fellow academics were being \u201ccastrated\u201d. They were avoiding controversy out of fear. Fear of what? Their jobs, for one. Even before the expansion of bias response teams, the sacking of academics for taking the \u201cwrong\u201d stance on, say, Israel-Palestine, had occurred. Since then, there have been reports of professors being disciplined and others having their tenure removed<\/a>\u00a0at the hands of these teams.<\/p>\n

The US-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education was shocked by how many bias response teams are now operating at US universities. During the course of 2016, the foundation documented at least 231 bias response teams on US campuses, and the number of these teams is believed to be growing<\/a> at a rapid rate.<\/p>\n

But the issue of being judged for your opinions isn\u2019t just confined to the US. In South Africa, a battle over who can say what has been raging for a while in the nation\u2019s universities. Penelope Andrews, dean of the University of Cape Town\u2019s law faculty, told us that the shutting down of intellectual space is coming from across the ideological spectrum. Some on the Right are refusing to confront historical arguments around identity and privilege and claim these links have been played up, while those on the Left are silencing opponents by saying only certain people can discuss and represent certain viewpoints.<\/p>\n

The stifling of debate may start in student unions and dorms, but it can soon spread into the lecture hall and compromise teaching. During the #FeesMustFall<\/a> movement last year, one academic, who didn\u2019t want to be named, said there was \u201ca really terrible climate of suspicion\u201d in her faculty\u2019s staff room at a leading South African institution. Colleagues shied away from saying anything that could be politically misconstrued.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that all academics feel they are being muzzled. Associate professor Mehita Iqani from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa argued that every time an academic is shouted down \u2013 and she did list a few examples \u2013 it generates more discussion as a result, a sort of positive free speech Scylla. Back in the US, Matt Mieskoski, who teaches English to undergraduates at the University of California, Irvine, said he had never had any \u201cblowback\u201d from subject matter he taught and language he used.<\/p>\n

These anecdotes would be reassuring were they not so rare. Instead, what Index on Censorship<\/em> has highlighted is a deeply worrying trend across nations. This includes the UK too, as recently reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Students need universities to be places where their minds can be opened and their thoughts challenged. Academics too need to be able to speak without fear of reprisal, to not be afraid of where their research might take them and to pose questions to their students that might be uncomfortable and provocative.<\/p>\n

These are the essential elements of tertiary-level education. It is within this environment of robust debate that a marketplace of ideas is created. Call me biased, but that\u2019s the kind of environment that I would want to go to university for.<\/p>\n

Author Bio: <\/em><\/strong>Jemimah Steinfeld is deputy editor of <\/em>Index on Censorship\u00a0magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trigger warnings, \u201csafe spaces\u201d and \u201cno platforming\u201d have all made headlines recently as signs of the deterioration of free speech on campuses in the US. What rarely makes news, though, is another troubling aspect of censorship: so-called bias response teams. Like a throwback to China\u2019s Red Guards, the student militia who turned on their teachers […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":38470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[33320],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-38469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-safe-spaces"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUniversities should be environments of robust debate, not 'safe spaces' - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not 'safe spaces' - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trigger warnings, \u201csafe spaces\u201d and \u201cno platforming\u201d have all made headlines recently as signs of the deterioration of free speech on campuses in the US. What rarely makes news, though, is another troubling aspect of censorship: so-called bias response teams. Like a throwback to China\u2019s Red Guards, the student militia who turned on their teachers […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-10T20:05:12+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-10T20:05:13+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"383\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not ‘safe spaces’\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-10T20:05:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-10T20:05:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":676,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"safe spaces\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/\",\"name\":\"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not 'safe spaces' - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-10T20:05:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-10T20:05:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":383},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not ‘safe spaces’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not 'safe spaces' - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not 'safe spaces' - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"Trigger warnings, \u201csafe spaces\u201d and \u201cno platforming\u201d have all made headlines recently as signs of the deterioration of free speech on campuses in the US. What rarely makes news, though, is another troubling aspect of censorship: so-called bias response teams. Like a throwback to China\u2019s Red Guards, the student militia who turned on their teachers […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2017-04-10T20:05:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-04-10T20:05:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":383,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not ‘safe spaces’","datePublished":"2017-04-10T20:05:12+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-10T20:05:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/"},"wordCount":676,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg","keywords":["safe spaces"],"articleSection":["Higher Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/","name":"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not 'safe spaces' - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-04-10T20:05:12+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-10T20:05:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/safe-spaces-colleges.jpeg","width":680,"height":383},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/universities-environments-robust-debate-not-safe-spaces\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Universities should be environments of robust debate, not ‘safe spaces’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38469"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=38469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}