"Yale faculty member at center of protests will leave teaching role"

"Do you remember the Yale professor getting yelled at by a student because his wife, who also taught there, sent an email some students considered offensive? Well, she's "leaving her teaching role". Whatever that means."

Erika Christakis, the Yale faculty member who sent an email defending students’ rights to wear potentially offensive Halloween costumes, such as turbans or blackface, as an expression of free speech, has decided to leave her teaching position.

“I have great respect and affection for my students, but I worry that the current climate at Yale is not, in my view, conducive to the civil dialogue and open inquiry required to solve our urgent societal problems,” she told The Washington Post .

Hundreds of members of the Yale community called for her resignation after her email, in which she wrote, “American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience. Increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition.”

"While cases of hateful and hurtful speech are not crimes..."

"... if the individual(s) identified are students, MU’s Office of Student Conduct can take disciplinary action."

A third-year law student at the University of Missouri fowarded an announcement he received by email this morning from the campus police, with the subject line “Reporting Hateful and/or Hurtful Speech”:

To continue to ensure that the University of Missouri campus remains safe, the MU Police Department (MUPD) is asking individuals who witness incidents of hateful and/or hurtful speech or actions to:

• Call the police immediately at [phone number redacted]. (If you are in an emergency situation, dial 911.)

• Give the communications operator a summary of the incident, including location.

• Provide a detailed description of the individual(s) involved.

• Provide a license plate and vehicle descriptions (if appropriate).

• If possible and if it can be done safely, take a photo of the individual(s) with your cell phone.

Delays, including posting information to social media, can often reduce the chances of identifying the responsible parties. While cases of hateful and hurtful speech are not crimes, if the individual(s) identified are students, MU’s Office of Student Conduct can take disciplinary action.

"We spoke with Maj. Brian Weimer, the campus police’s public information officer, who confirms the email is genuine. It’s also very troubling." writes Taranto.
Read more by googling 'Literal Speech Police' for access to James Taranto's Best of the Web for today.

Washington Post Volokh link

"The progressive ideas behind the lack of free speech on campus"

"These days, when students talk about threats to their safety and demand access to “safe spaces,” they’re often talking about the threat of unwelcome speech and demanding protection from the emotional disturbances sparked by unsettling ideas. It’s not just rape that some women on campus fear: It’s discussions of rape. At Brown University, a scheduled debate between two feminists about rape culture was criticized for, as the Brown Daily Herald put it, undermining “the University’s mission to create a safe and supportive environment for survivors.” In a school-wide e-mail, Brown President Christina Paxon emphasized her belief in the existence of rape culture and invited students to an alternative lecture, to be given at the same time as the debate. And the Daily Herald reported that students who feared being “attacked by the viewpoints” offered at the debate could instead “find a safe space” among “sexual assault peer educators, women peer counselors and staff” during the same time slot. Presumably they all shared the same viewpoints and could be trusted not to “attack” anyone with their ideas." (Link t the whole article)



Via Instapundit