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In anti-intellectual email, Wellesley profs call engaging with controversial arguments an imposition on students

In an email to fellow faculty yesterday afternoon, a committee of Wellesley College professors made several startling recommendations about how they think future campus speakers should be chosen. If implemented, the proposals by the faculty would have a profound impact on the quality and quantity of voices Wellesley students would be permitted to hear.

FIRE has obtained the email, sent by one of the signatories to a faculty listserv, and republished it in full below.

While paying lip service to free speech, the email is remarkable in its contempt for free and open dialogue on campus. Asserting that controversial speakers 鈥渋mpose on the liberty of students, staff, and faculty at Wellesley,鈥 the committee members lament the fact that such speakers negatively impact students by forcing them to 鈥渋nvest time and energy in rebutting the speakers鈥 arguments.鈥

And here we thought learning to effectively challenge views with which one disagreed was an important part of the educational process!

They point specifically to a by Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis, a self-described feminist who has criticized Title IX implementation and a 鈥渃ulture of sexual paranoia鈥 on campuses.

( elicited from Wellesley students who disagreed with her.)

The committee recommends that those inviting any future speakers 鈥渃onsider whether, in their zeal for promoting debate, they might, in fact, stifle productive debate by enabling the bullying of disempowered groups,鈥 adding that the committee would be 鈥渉appy to serve as a sounding board when hosts are considering inviting controversial speakers, to help sponsors think through the various implications of extending an invitation.鈥 They also argue that 鈥渟tandards of respect and rigor must remain paramount when considering whether a speaker is actually qualified for the platform granted by an invitation to Wellesley.鈥

But the implementation of such reforms would, in itself, establish a campus orthodoxy and a climate in which any speaking invitation might be subject to prior review by a select few faculty.

Kipnis, reached for comment by 果冻传媒app官方, disapproved.

鈥淚 find it absurd that six faculty members at Wellesley can call themselves defenders of free speech and also conflate my recent talk with bullying the disempowered,鈥 Kipnis told FIREin an email. 鈥淲hat actually happened was that there was a lively back and forth after I spoke. The students were smart and articulate, including those who disagreed with me.鈥

鈥淚鈥檓 going to go further and say 鈥 as someone who鈥檚 been teaching for a long time, and wants to see my students able to function in the world post-graduation 鈥 that protecting students from the 鈥榙istress鈥 of someone鈥檚 ideas isn鈥檛 education, it鈥檚 a $67,000 babysitting bill.鈥

FIRE will be looking more into this development at Wellesley in the coming days.

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