Britain’s Effort to Monitor Extremism on Campuses Draws Opposition

August 31, 2011, 10:03 am

Student groups and faculty organizations at British universities are expressing profound unease about being asked under the British government’s new antiterrorism strategy to inform the police about Muslim students who seem depressed or isolated, The Guardian reports. The strategy, which was unveiled in June, is being carried out on campuses by police officers who are training university staff in “how to spot students vulnerable to extremism,” according to the newspaper.

The president of one institution’s student union, who had met with officers, expressed outrage that the officers were “asking us to effectively spy on our Muslim students.” The national faculty union also warned that the approach risked damaging relations between students and faculty members. Despite the apparent opposition, the government said that it had not received any objections from institutions saying that they would not be putting the policy into effect.

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sand6432

Hmm, wonder if that applies to members of football teams at Arizona universities?
rick1952

This bill is meaningful only IF the Arizona legislature is going to make sure that behavioral-health agencies are properly funded in order to provide the services required to treat persons who are “…expelled or suspended at least twice for violence or threats of violence.” Otherwise this will be just another knee-jerk, political grandstanding ploy by a legislative body that has repeatedly demonstrated its shameless capacity to engage in such activity with respect to other serious issues (e.g., immigration.)

While there is no guaranteed way to prevent senseless violence, our nation could probably reduce the risk of its occurrence substantially by providing appropriate mental health care for paranoid schizophrenics and reducing their ability to gain access to weapons in general, and guns in particular. It probably wouldn’t hurt to do the same for those with anger management issues.
swish

Just after the shooting of Rep. Giffords, it seemed as if we might actually get some new gun laws, imposing more requirements on sellers and buyers, outlawing certain automatic or semi-automatic handguns, establishing more gun-free zones. Instead, numerous states are trying to eliminate concealed carry restrictions on school campuses.

And even though it is clear that this shooter and most others could not legally have been arrested or committed for any action prior to the shooting, now there’s this bill in Arizona (with others likely to turn up elsewhere).

I guess legislators figure they’ll get some kind of brownie points for addressing a problem, even if their solution is worthless or worse.
redanlew

Let’s see, in combination with the proposed legislation permitting guns on campuses, seems like Arizona is adding fuel to the fire, then requiring empty fire extinguishers
calgrad

Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic: “U. of North Carolina to Investigate Christian Singing Group’s Dismissal of Gay Student”. No double standard there, no sir.

(Ref: This issue of the CoHE: http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-north-carolina-to-investigate-christian-singing-groups-dismissal-of-gay-student/35837?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en)