POLICY & REFORM
campusreview.com.au
“Increasingly, the word ‘safety’ is
being used in relation to ideas people
feel challenged by or dislike. That’s
patently absurd” – @matthewlesh
#CRFreeSpeech
— Campus Review (@CampusReview)
20 November 2018
Bell, on the other hand, hasn’t witnessed
such situations. She noted that her
“students are not snowflakes”. That is,
in her view, they aren’t easily offended
by perceived slights to their freedom of
speech. A vast proportion of the students
who attend WSU are from migrant, refugee
or low socioeconomic backgrounds,
and/or are first-in-family. Never mind free
speech; financially surviving throughout
their degree and getting a job afterwards
are often their sole considerations, Bell said,
adding that “today, the pressure to succeed
is immense because the cost of failure is
much higher than it used to be”.
Professor Sharon Bell, pro vice-
chancellor (strategy and planning)
at @westernsydneyu says “students
think sticks and stones will break their
bones and words will actually hurt
them” #CRFreeSpeech
— Campus Review (@CampusReview)
21 November 2018
UON's Johnson also questioned who
the free speech-activist minority purport
to speak for. Referring to an incident at
Columbia University in the US, where
a small group of students, in protesting
events on campus and subsequently being
investigated by the university, claimed
they represented ‘people of colour’ and
‘the working class’, Johnson said: “I’m
from a working class family. They don’t
speak for me.”
Presenter Dr David Baker, lecturer in big
history at Macquarie University, generally
agreed with Johnson and Bell. “A minority
of cases make appalling headlines,” he said.
Yet he diverged from them in that he thinks
free speech on campus is a grave problem.
“That I was concerned about speaking
today speaks to the fact that there is
something very wrong with free speech in
universities today,” he said.
He is particularly troubled by
administrative overreach in this respect,
stating that some universities have
banned sarcasm. This provoked audience
questioning: How had universities
Matthew Lesh addresses the seminar. Photo: APN
done this? And if they had, wasn’t it in the
(justifiable) context of sarcasm as it relates
to bullying and harassment?
Baker argued that even if it appeared
in this context, it remains disturbing, as it
could be manipulated.
“The best business decision you could
make as a university administrator
is a commitment to free speech”
– David Baker @Macquarie_Uni
#CRFreeSpeech
— Campus Review (@CampusReview)
20 November 2018
How did we get to this point? Free
speech on campus arguments grew out
of the civil rights movement in the US,
explained Philadelphia-based presenter
Marieke Beck-Coon, via Google Hangouts.
Although free speech on campus remains
a heated issue in the US, it is generally
protected by the First Amendment to the
United States Constitution, so alleged
infringements of it are not as acute as they
are in Australia.
Further to this point, presenter Richard
Fisher, general counsel of the University of
Sydney, set out universities’ legal obligations
as they pertain to free speech, including in
constitutional law. He posed the question:
Do universities need a ‘charter of rights’?
His lofty speech was grounded
by the panel discussion that concluded
the seminar. A touch awkwardly for
Campus Review, most speakers, Fisher
included, chastised the media for inflaming
the campus free speech issue.
“What is making matters more
complicated is that the media are prepared
to demonise students – for example,
columns by Miranda Devine. That is skewing
the debate. I think conservative media is
playing a divisive role,” Johnson said.
To this end, a USYD audience member
pointed out that, in her view, Lesh’s
characterisation of an incident at USYD
involving controversial speaker Bettina
Arndt, based on parliamentary and media
reports of it, was incorrect.
However, the discussion ended on
a sympathetic note. The panellists
pondered whether students could be
protesting about their free speech being
curtailed simply because they are craving
the sense of community that mass
gatherings can generate.
They mentioned that with tutorials
increasingly becoming optional, the rise of
online learning, and economic pressures
leading to less time being spent on
campus, students are more isolated from
their peers than they used to be.
“In some of my tutorial classes where 35
students are enrolled, only three show up,”
Johnson said.
“When the whole class is there for
the few mandatory lessons, students
always say they wish there were more
of them.” ■
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