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Faculty Members at Berkeley Call for Boycott of Free Speech Week

Faculty Members at Berkeley Call for Boycott of Free Speech Week

“The letter was co-written by seven faculty members”

You can always count on the faculty at Berkeley to set s good example for the students, right?

From the Daily Californian:

UC Berkeley faculty members call for boycott of classes during ‘Free Speech Week’

In a letter addressed to the UC Berkeley campus and the Berkeley community, 132 campus faculty members from various departments have called for a complete boycott of classes and campus activities during “Free Speech Week,” which will be held on campus from Sept. 24-27.

The letter was co-written by seven faculty members, including campus associate teaching professor of African American studies Michael Cohen. It calls upon faculty to take three steps: cancel classes and tell students to stay home; close buildings and departments and allow staff to stay home; and not penalize students who are afraid of coming to campus. The letter was also signed by 56 individuals who aren’t part of the UC Berkeley faculty.

“This is a clear threat to public higher education,” Cohen said. “People are coming to humiliate others and incite violence. … The boycott is a refusal to allow this to happen on our campus.”

According to Cohen, most of the students in his African American Studies 27AC class are students of color. Cohen said he believed that for him to ask his students to be on campus during Free Speech Week was unethical and discriminatory.

Free Speech Week is being hosted by the Berkeley Patriot, a conservative student newspaper. The four-day event includes themes such as “Feminism Awareness Day” and “Mario Savio is Dead.” Speakers scheduled to be on campus include Milo Yiannopoulos and Steve Bannon.

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Comments

A professor of a “studies” course thinks it is “unethical and discriminatory” for his students to participate in the free exchange of ideas which is exactly what I thought a studies course is all about. Does he teach studies by diktat?

Any discipline that ends in the word “studies” might be problematic. This is one way the Lefty faculty can strike back at those uppity slaves who dared defy Lefty rule and, of their own free will, go hear a speaker who is deemed ungood.