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It's mind-boggling that it has to be limited. What are universities for? Every day every university should have hundreds of guests thinkers and grad students st

It's mind-boggling that it has to be limited. What are universities for? Every day every university should have hundreds of guests thinkers and grad students streaming through doing paid speeches and Q&As. If half of them are Alex Jones fraudsters, ok, let students protest and leaflet outside all they want, which would be even more exchanging of ideas and facts.

kentm 8y ago
It's mind-boggling that it has to be limited. I meant that in terms of physical space availability, of which there is a finite amount. Theres only so many conference rooms that can house a visiting guest speaker.
- furgooswft13 8y ago
  I don't think that's a real issue. It's not like all the controversial speakers are trying to speak at the same university at the same time. Usually these spots are planned weeks or months in advance, plenty of time to book a room. In fact most of the spots that have been called off were canceled well after they were scheduled and confirmed. If a university for whatever reason does not want to host the speaker at all, then just come right out and say so. Saying "Oh so sorry, we're all booked for the next 6 months!" is just a transparent excuse.
  - kentm 8y ago
    Its not specific to those examples though. Think of it like a thought experiment: a university literally can't host everyone so there's some criteria by which a guest needs to be judged. In America, a lot of the spots were cancelled, IIRC, because protests necessitated increased security that couldn't be arranged or paid for. I'm not sure thats on the university.
    - burfog 8y ago
      Protests are an excuse. Protests are allowed and even encouraged by the university. If the university actually wanted to stop protests, it would be trivial. Simply remove all support for protesters. (make this known in advance) This means: access cards stop working, transcripts are made unavailable, employees are fired, degrees are revoked, scholarships are terminated... some of this can be retroactive too. When this has been done even in relatively limited form, protesters quickly stopped causing trouble. When the university gives tacit approval to the protesters, things quickly spiral out of control.
      - kentm 8y ago
        Protesting is a pretty fundamental right and societal value in America though. Cracking down on protests is, in my view, just as authoritarian as what the universities are accused of.
        furgooswft13 8y ago
        Rioting is not a fundamental right. An actual peaceful protest would not require prohibitively costly security arrangements.
        kentm 8y ago
        Whether something is a riot is often subjective and a lot of security arrangements are made for peaceful protests. After all a peaceful protest may turn into a riot. Or it may remain peaceful.

kentm 8y ago

It's mind-boggling that it has to be limited. I meant that in terms of physical space availability, of which there is a finite amount. Theres only so many conference rooms that can house a visiting guest speaker.

furgooswft13 8y ago
I don't think that's a real issue. It's not like all the controversial speakers are trying to speak at the same university at the same time. Usually these spots are planned weeks or months in advance, plenty of time to book a room. In fact most of the spots that have been called off were canceled well after they were scheduled and confirmed. If a university for whatever reason does not want to host the speaker at all, then just come right out and say so. Saying "Oh so sorry, we're all booked for the next 6 months!" is just a transparent excuse.
- kentm 8y ago
  Its not specific to those examples though. Think of it like a thought experiment: a university literally can't host everyone so there's some criteria by which a guest needs to be judged. In America, a lot of the spots were cancelled, IIRC, because protests necessitated increased security that couldn't be arranged or paid for. I'm not sure thats on the university.
  - burfog 8y ago
    Protests are an excuse. Protests are allowed and even encouraged by the university. If the university actually wanted to stop protests, it would be trivial. Simply remove all support for protesters. (make this known in advance) This means: access cards stop working, transcripts are made unavailable, employees are fired, degrees are revoked, scholarships are terminated... some of this can be retroactive too. When this has been done even in relatively limited form, protesters quickly stopped causing trouble. When the university gives tacit approval to the protesters, things quickly spiral out of control.
    - kentm 8y ago
      Protesting is a pretty fundamental right and societal value in America though. Cracking down on protests is, in my view, just as authoritarian as what the universities are accused of.
      - furgooswft13 8y ago
        Rioting is not a fundamental right. An actual peaceful protest would not require prohibitively costly security arrangements.
        kentm 8y ago
        Whether something is a riot is often subjective and a lot of security arrangements are made for peaceful protests. After all a peaceful protest may turn into a riot. Or it may remain peaceful.