Wimpering Students Need to Grow Up Or Get Out of University

THE TELEGRAPH: Political correctness was admirable. Now it has gone too far on campus. Far too far. It is time to fight back

A university should be a “safe space” – for free speech, for challenging dogmas and assumptions, for putting forward innovative ideas, for robust debate, for discovery, for intellectual courage. It should not be a safe space for preserving the timidities and assurances of pre-university childhood and adolescence.

Yet that is what university students on many American campuses now demand. They want to be warned in advance if course material contains references to subjects that could distress them. They want to be exempted from reading texts that touch on such matters as sexual abuse, divorce and suicide – which immediately puts Thomas Hardy, F Scott Fitzgerald and Virginia Woolf off the syllabus. It has even happened that professors have been driven from their jobs by students accusing them of being insufficiently “politically correct”.

On some campuses, students have set aside “safe spaces” with cuddly toys and puppy videos where those stressed by uncomfortable topics can avoid them. The atmosphere of hypersensitive inability to handle challenging ideas invites caricature: today’s American students, it seems, want mollycoddling and reassurance, not education; they want security, not intellectual and personal growth. And what happens in America is too soon copied elsewhere – including in Britain. Read on and comment » | AC Grayling, Master of New College of the Humanities in London | Friday, December 4, 2015

Brandeis Withdraws Honorary Degree for Islam Critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

THE GUARDIAN: Liberal arts college in Massachusetts says 'we cannot overlook certain statements that are inconsistent with our core values'

A university has reversed a decision to grant an honorary degree to an advocate for Muslim women who has made comments critical of Islam.

Brandeis University said in a statement that Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali would no longer receive the honorary degree, which it had planned to award her at the May 18 commencement.

Ali, a member of the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006, has been quoted as making comments critical of Islam. That includes a 2007 interview with Reason Magazine [sic] in which she said of the religion: "Once it's defeated, it can mutate into something peaceful. It's very difficult to even talk about peace now. They're not interested in peace. I think that we are at war with Islam. And there's no middle ground in wars."

Brandeis, outside Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts, said it was not aware of Ali's statements earlier.

"She is a compelling public figure and advocate for women's rights, and we respect and appreciate her work to protect and defend the rights of women and girls throughout the world," said the university's statement. "That said, we cannot overlook certain of her past statements that are inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values." Read on and comment » | Associated Press | Wednesday, April 09, 2014

REASON.COM: Did Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Reason Interview Sink Her at Brandeis? » | Nick Gillespie | Wednesday, April 09, 2014

US Universities to Consider Positive Discrimination
The US supreme court is considering whether universities should need to asses race and gender when selecting students. It is part of a pre-existing policy called "Affirmative Action" where race and gender are factors used to admit students to the academic institutions. Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett reports.