I concur with your recognition that Stepanek was baiting the three elite university presidents into making an egregious error no matter how they answered. If they had replied that calling for Jewish genocide violates their codes of conduct, her next question would be: “What specifically have you done to remedy this situation?” No matter their reply, she would have castigated them as taking insufficent steps. Instead, the presidents remarkably tried to answer legalistically with: “It depends on the context.” A worse answer because it misread the politics of the situation. Their similar answers sounded uncaring, even dismissive, of the dangers to Jewish students.
As you note, the congressional hearing was aimed squarely at destroying the credibility of our elite universities by claiming that they are “woke” leftist oriented. Another talking point for the 2024 presidential election.
As for free speech generally on college campuses, there will always be a tension between permitting extreme or novel opinions to be aired and preventing violence or a hostile atmosphere. I don’t envy college administrators. At my college, Rutgers, one of the best speakers we had was Amiri Baraka (leRoi Jones) who was extremely controversial in the 1960s. In that case, the sponsoring administration made a wise decision. I wonder if he would be allowed to speak on a college campus today.
"...overlooked is the reality that inequalities of power are existential to human relations." Hi Joe. I am curious about this assertion. I hope you will say more about it in a future post. Thank you.
I concur with your recognition that Stepanek was baiting the three elite university presidents into making an egregious error no matter how they answered. If they had replied that calling for Jewish genocide violates their codes of conduct, her next question would be: “What specifically have you done to remedy this situation?” No matter their reply, she would have castigated them as taking insufficent steps. Instead, the presidents remarkably tried to answer legalistically with: “It depends on the context.” A worse answer because it misread the politics of the situation. Their similar answers sounded uncaring, even dismissive, of the dangers to Jewish students.
As you note, the congressional hearing was aimed squarely at destroying the credibility of our elite universities by claiming that they are “woke” leftist oriented. Another talking point for the 2024 presidential election.
As for free speech generally on college campuses, there will always be a tension between permitting extreme or novel opinions to be aired and preventing violence or a hostile atmosphere. I don’t envy college administrators. At my college, Rutgers, one of the best speakers we had was Amiri Baraka (leRoi Jones) who was extremely controversial in the 1960s. In that case, the sponsoring administration made a wise decision. I wonder if he would be allowed to speak on a college campus today.
Another well thought out essay.
"...overlooked is the reality that inequalities of power are existential to human relations." Hi Joe. I am curious about this assertion. I hope you will say more about it in a future post. Thank you.