Campus Report

Freedom of speech is being redefined by university faculty and administrators to protect leftist academicians from any serious challenges of their views, according to reports collected by Accuracy in Academia.

Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy gave a lecture recently entitled “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Free Speech Has Got to Go!” Kennedy advocated the removal of freedom of speech on the grounds that “toleration has its limits.” Of course, those limits would be defined by his reasoning and only his.

“Can a protester abridge the rights of a Reagan or a Republican Secretary of Defense?” a student asked during the lecture. Kennedy said he would sanction the silencing of their views, as well as those of a visiting ‘contra’ from Nicaragua. When a student asked how he would feel if a visiting lecturer was beaten or killed during such a protest, Kennedy remarked, “It’s a close call, something I’d have to think deeply about.”

Another Harvard professor, mathematics Professor Vishwambhar Pati, defended the silencing of a South African speaker by writing “… there is no provision under U.S. law that guarantees uninterrupted free speech … [The South African’s] privilege to air his views from a Harvard podium is hardly a right.”

The university, which is supposed to be an arena of inquiry, testing and thinking, is becoming a haven for those who only ascribe to a certain point of view, according to an article in Accuracy in Academia’s Campus Report. The article stated that Brooklyn College Professor Robert Cheery defended the silencing of government speakers in a letter:

“…[A]cademic freedom was initiated to protect those who held anti-establishment positions. Those who represent the government have more than ample access to the media so that anyone seriously interested can easily find out their position. If opponents choose to disrupt a government representative’s talk, it reflects a protest against the government’s policies, not an abridgement of freedom of speech.”

A speech by Nicaraguan Resistance Leader Adolfo Calero was recently cancelled by a dean at Harvard University because the audience was dominated by conservatives. Prior to the speech, the same dean spearheaded a protest against Calero. Campus Report posed an interesting question at the end of their published findings:“Where is the American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way when you need them?”