The left-leaning defenders of academic freedom are rallying to the aid of a man they generally love to hate: the conservative activist David Horowitz.
The Saint Louis University chapters of the College Republicans and Young America’s Foundation had invited Mr. Horowitz to speak on the campus on October 13, but university administrators told the students in a series of meetings that they could not hold the event as planned.
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3 Responses to Horowitz’s Defenders Channel Voltaire
kevinoconnell - September 29, 2009 at 7:16 am
What a mess Catholic education in the States is. Notre Date Dame allowed President Obama to promote his message of killing babies in the womb unopposed. No mention there of accomodating alternative viewpoints. But Horowitz is censored for opposing the Islamic assault on intellectual freedom, something which academics everywhere should be opposing in principle and as a matter of their own survival. Dear God.
mdefusco - September 29, 2009 at 8:10 am
To be fair, this is the university that defended its basketball coach after a conservative bishop called for action after the coach endorsed a candidate who supported stem cell research. I beleieve that the role of universities are to explore differing points of view. However, the university has other obligations as well. I appreciate the conundrum facing universities and while I am disapointed that sometimes universities make mistakes, catholic institutions (especially Jesuit ones) are far more open to opposing views than are institutions sponsored by conservative chistians. This is not evidence of “a mess”, but an inside view into how an institution handles real conflict. I hope SLU gets it right. Here’s to openness on all sides.
kathden - September 29, 2009 at 12:52 pm
One could make an argument about “religious” schools to defend SLU or to castigate it. But there is something essential that is being overlooked.The university is *not* a debating society that welcomes all comers, it is a place that is supposed to be dedicated to the pursuit of truth adhering to principles and methods. From the account given here, SLU officials may well have been prompted by their Catholic or Jesuit training, but standing up for the need to situate ideas methodically and disciplinarily is of the essence of what a university is. A public university in the US is governed further by the constitutionally-protected right to free speech, but even a public university needs to insist that the university is a place of inquiry and not just a public space open to all comers.Shame on the AAUP (of which I am a member) for not making this distinction! Woe to us in academia if we have to be reminded of this! We need to see and identify it instantaneously.