Colleges Should Defend Students’ Free Speech Against Billionaire Donors

[Auburn85 438]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/colleges-should-defend-students-free-speech-against-billionaire-donors

 

 

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Shan Wu

Published Oct. 17, 2023

 

 

Criticism of student groups blaming Israel for the killing of civilians by Hamas terrorists gives colleges and universities a choice between protecting their students or caving into the pressure of wealthy donors. They should choose their students.

Student reactions to the attack—like those expressed in a letter from the Harvard University Palestine Solidarity Committee, co-signed by several dozen other student organizations—blaming Israel as being “solely responsible for all unfolding violence” have caused enormous backlash against the students, as well as the schools.

Billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, a Harvard alum, demanded on social media that Harvard release the names of students who had signed onto the letter so that he—and other CEOs who support him—could make sure they didn’t “accidently hire” any of the students who voiced those opinions. Wealthy donors and organizations have both threatened and actually withdrawn financial support over schools taking too long to condemn the attacks.

The Wexner Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to developing Jewish leaders in business and government, terminated its 30-year relationship with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. And the University of Pennsylvania faced calls from another Wall Street billionaire for the university president and board of trustees to be fired, and for other donors to cut off their donations over the billionaire’s dislike of the school’s response to the attacks.

 

Let me be clear about people’s rights to express their opinions.

Donors—whether wealthy billionaires or not—have a right to talk with their mouths, feet, and wallets. If they don’t like what the schools do they have a perfect right to say so and stop donating. If a wealthy Wall Street billionaire felt up to leaving their plush offices they could even get out and protest—imagine that.

Students, too, have a right to do the same.

They can protest—as they often do—and even choose to leave their schools if they want. But it’s how educational institutions handle these controversies and expressions that critically affects education and, ultimately, our freedoms.

Allowing and protecting student free expression is not only protecting the First Amendment, but educating students about how to process the events of the world by thinking about them, reacting viscerally and intellectually, while learning how to seek solutions. That’s the job of educators. They don’t need to listen to loudmouth billionaires like Bill Ackman dictating how to educate.

Ackman appears oblivious to the irony of his social media support for MAGA poster-boy Kyle Rittenhouse—whom Ackman praised as a “civic-minded patriot” for killing two unarmed people with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, and maiming a third—while he calls for the McCarthy-style blacklisting of students who signed the letter blaming Israel for the Hamas attacks.

He’s not alone in calling for the punishment of students for expressing their views. One New York University (NYU) law student lost their offer to a prestigious law firm over their expression.

NYU’s reaction is particularly troubling, as their public statement to The New York Times suggested the student could be under investigation for misconduct—a likely violation of that student’s privacy rights. Students at Harvard are also being doxed by a conservative group that has put their names and faces on the side of a bus that drove around campus and labeled them “Harvard's leading antisemites.”

But we keep seeing this playbook of attacking education being used by the powerful and elite.

The banning of curriculum in Florida and other states that offend powerful politicians like Gov. Ron DeSantis, and the caving in of educational organizations like the College Board, which stripped down its African Studies Advanced Placement Studies to comport with Florida’s “Stop Woke” law are but two examples.

Billionaires who want to dictate educational policies confuse campuses with corporations, and educational institutions need to stiffen their backbone and push back.

Most colleges and universities already have existing policies and mission statements that ban hate speech and any form of discrimination based on religion, political viewpoints, gender, and the like. They should remind the critics and their own students of these policies that allow for the discipline of students for violating such rules—discipline that includes suspension and expulsion.

Sure, it can be a tough call in the heat of the moment to distinguish between impassioned speech and racism and antisemitism—hate speech that masquerades as free speech—but that’s what educational institutions get paid the big bucks to do.

To protect their students, schools should denounce efforts like the one by Bill Ackman to target students and expose them to potential life-threatening danger through doxing. At the same time, they should also enforce rules against discrimination and hateful conduct because that enforcement also protects their students.

Universities have always been a flashpoint for social and historical change. The wide-scale student protests during the Vietnam War, calls for divestment over apartheid, and climate change are just a few instances that have contributed greatly to social change.

That’s the way it should be in a free society.

Those looking to use their power to dictate educational policies and the free exchange of ideas on campuses are blind to the fact that the power to impose their opinions because of wealth and power is a basic building block of authoritarianism—not education.

Stanford University may provide a good working model for schools facing the inevitable controversies of world events. It has put out a statement stating that “as a moral matter, we condemn all terrorism and mass atrocities. This includes the deliberate attack on civilians by Hamas” but which also manages expectations by saying to the campus and world that “you should not expect frequent commentary from us in the future.”

That seems about right to me. In education, commentaries about world events—whether they be horrific or wonderful—should take place primarily in the classroom.

 

 

 

[Auburn85 438]

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/wash-u-professor-said-he-was-fired-for-anti-palestinian-post-as-hundreds-protest-war/article_7a19fbc0-6b86-11ee-8d13-df96f0032447.html

 

 

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Wash U professor said he was fired for anti-Palestinian post as hundreds protest war

Steph Kukuljan ,  Nassim Benchaabane

October 16

 

ST. LOUIS — A Washington University professor said he was fired over the weekend for a social media post that purportedly called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

The social media post was condemned during a protest in downtown St. Louis on Sunday that called for the end of violence in the Gaza Strip. The protest drew more than a thousand people.

But a spokeswoman for Washington University said that the professor, Seth Crosby, was not fired, that he remains employed but the university is “following up.”

Crosby said Friday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the attacks by Israel on Palestine were a “much needed cleansing, yes, but not an ethnic one. Israel is not targeting humans.”

 

Crosby in subsequent posts said that he was referring to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that launched attacks into Israel last weekend, killing hundreds. Then on Saturday, he said on X that Washington University had fired him. He later apologized on X before his account was deleted.

Crosby did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

Washington University spokeswoman Julie Flory said in an email on Sunday that the opinions Crosby expressed do not represent the university.

“We are following up as appropriate,” she said, “according to our policies and processes.”

 

Seth Crosby said Washington University fired him for making an anti-Palestinian post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Oct. 13, 2023. The post has since been deleted.

X

 

Crosby has spent nearly 20 years at the Washington University School of Medicine, most recently as director of research collaborations for the department of genetics, according to his LinkedIn profile.

 

His faculty pages on Washington University’s websites had been scrubbed by Sunday afternoon.

More than 3,000 Palestinians and Israelis have been killed since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing hundreds and taking dozens of others hostages. The attack prompted retaliatory strikes by Israel on the Gaza Strip and resulted in a war that has destroyed entire neighborhoods in Gaza, displaced thousands of Palestinians and increased tensions in the Middle East of a broader war.

The Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Crosby’s social media post in a statement.

“It is unconscionable that a professor at a Missouri institution of higher education would allegedly call for the ethnic cleansing of any population and would seek to dehumanize the target of that crime against humanity,” said CAIR-Missouri Board Chair Yasir Ali.

 

CAIR-Missouri, Muslim-Americans for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and others led a protest for Palestine on Sunday afternoon at Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis.

 

More than 1,000 marched through downtown, calling on American leaders to urge Israel to stop shelling Gaza and halt plans to invade the densely populated strip. The Associated Press has reported Israeli air strikes killed more than 2,600 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, including hundreds of children.

 

Organizers in St. Louis said Sunday that civilians were being killed indiscriminately in what was the beginning of a genocide.

“Stop the killing,” said Muath Salameh, an organizer with Muslim-Americans for Palestine. “Stop the genocide.”

 

Hani Mohsen, 56, said he lost sleep in recent days after seeing images of women and children being killed, in both Israel and Gaza.

But U.S. politicians and media were focusing on Israeli casualties and largely silent on the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, he said.

“Innocent people shouldn’t be used for revenge,” said Mohsen, who is originally from Lebanon. “I don’t want any innocent civilians to be killed anywhere.”

CAIR-Missouri called on the international community to intervene to prevent an unfolding humanitarian crisis.

 

“We have a responsibility as human beings toward our fellow human beings,” said Komel Choudhary, secretary of CAIR-Missouri. “Palestinian children who are unable to even comprehend what is happening to them are getting bombs dropped on them.”

 

Choudhary said the professor’s social media post was part of a broader wave of hate against Muslims. CAIR-Missouri told people at the rally experiencing racial prejudice or Islamophobia to contact the group, which advocates for Muslim-American civil rights.

“Even professors at prestigious institutions right here in St. Louis have voiced negative and dehumanizing remarks about Palestinians,” Choudhary said.

In St. Louis County, about 200 people attended a rally Sunday in support of Israel outside the Jewish Federation Building.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Auburn85

[Auburn85 438]

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/stanford-instructor-suspended/3341224/

 

 

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Stanford instructor suspended over ‘identity-based targeting' of students

 

By Kris Sanchez • Published October 13

 

Tensions over the Israel-Hamas war have boiled over at Stanford University, where one instructor was suspended for what the university calls "identity-based targeting" of students.

According to the university, the instructor asked Israeli and Jewish students to identify themselves and had those students go to a corner of the classroom, saying this is how Palestinians are treated.

According to students who spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle, the lecturer told about 18 students that it was lesson was about colonialism, blaming the war on the people who want to retain Israel as a Jewish homeland.

Stanford did not release the name of the instructor, but it did issue a statement that reads, in part, "Academic freedom does not permit the identity-based targeting of students. The instructor in this course is not currently teaching while the university works to ascertain the facts of the situation."

 

 

 

[Auburn85 438]

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/14/1205809697/israel-gaza-college-campus-protests-statements

 

 

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U.S. students are clashing over the Israel-Hamas war. What can colleges do?

October 14

 

By 

Rachel Treisman Elissa Nadworny

 

The violence in Israel and Gaza has heightened tensions on college campuses across the U.S., as students, staff, and administrators grapple with how to respond.

Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian student groups are weighing in online and in person, with many of their statements and protests provoking strong reactions from the other side.

Take the controversy at Harvard, where dozens of student groups signed onto a letter from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) on Oct. 7 — the day Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel — holding Israel "entirely responsible for all unfolding violence."

The letter garnered widespread backlash from students, faculty, high-profile alumni, politicians, and even Harvard's president. Several groups have since retracted their support of the letter, though some of their members have been doxxed.

In New York, the president of NYU's Student Bar Association wrote that "Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life," in a letter to the group that quickly went viral and drew widespread condemnation. The student has since lost their law firm job offer and is in the process of being removed from their leadership role.

Student groups have also held vigils and protests, which in some cases have led to direct confrontations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups.

Protesters clashed at schools, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Indiana University, in recent days. Columbia University closed its campus to the public on Thursday due to safety concerns over two planned student protests, a day after an Israeli student was allegedly assaulted with a stick outside its library.

Some university administrations have been more vocal than others, with their comments — or lack thereof — further stirring up emotions.

Some, like University of Florida President Ben Sasse, have issued statements strongly supporting Israel and Jewish students. Others, like Vanderbilt University and Ohio State University, have been more neutral.

And certain schools haven't weighed in at all — Stanford University's statement stressed its policy of neutrality, while Northwestern University's president announced he won't be releasing an official statement on the school's position on this or other geopolitical issues going forward.

How exactly should colleges be responding to this current moment, both to support students' rights and protect their safety? It's a complicated question, experts tell NPR.

Eboo Patel, the founder and president of Interfaith America — an organization that works with nearly 1,000 campuses on interfaith issues — described a phone call he got from a college president who was worried that a peaceful vigil could turn violent.

His response was that colleges need to be two things right now: communities of care and cooperation. People are hurting, he adds, and words matter.

"We're not going to minimize the conflict, we're simply going to say that we are not going to allow the conflict to prevent us from cooperating on other things," Patel says. "That's the genius of American college campuses. That's what college presidents and athletic directors and faculty and staff and students need to keep their focus on right now."

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was already a divisive topic on college campuses, as in U.S. society at large.

An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds that, while two-thirds of Americans say the United States should publicly support Israel in the war between Israel and Hamas, there are wide generational and racial differences.

Students have been on the cutting edge of social justice movements throughout history, from protesting the Vietnam War to fighting for immigrants' rights, says Radhika Sainath, a staff attorney at U.S.-based advocacy group Palestine Legal.

She says pro-Palestinian advocacy on college campuses is not new, nor is the backlash against students who speak out. But she says her group has seen an "exponential surge" in requests for legal help — as many as 10-20 a day — from people who have been fired from their jobs, questioned or threatened for expressing support for Palestinian rights.

Sainath stressed that the First Amendment right to free speech is protected at public universities and most private schools, depending on the state. But sometimes, she says, universities violate their own policies.

"People are just really, really scared right now at universities and across the country, especially students and professors are really worried about what they are able to say," she said.

Jewish students say they're scared, too, with antisemitism on the rise in much of the country. A September Ipsos poll found that 57% percent of Jewish college students report having witnessed or experienced an antisemitic incident, either on their campus or in the general public.

Caroline Yaffa, a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, says she feels unsafe because of several recent incidents on campus. She says her parents are worried about her safety going to classes, and the thought of showing her ID — with her Jewish last name — at a bar makes her anxious now.

"It's so upsetting because I love my heritage, I love my religion, I love going to synagogue, I love celebrating the holidays with my family when we all get together, and I'm not ashamed of it," she said. "But I also want to protect my safety."

Students want to feel heard and supported

Yaffa believes universities are obligated to weigh in on events like the Israel-Hamas conflict because they represent "every single person in their community" and should protect all of its members. She said she would have felt safer on campus if UNC leadership had done more beyond talking with students and posting a statement on social media.

Hours after she spoke with NPR on Friday, UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz sent a campus message condemning Hamas' actions in Israel and promoting resources for all affected students and staff, for which Yaffa said she was "beyond grateful."

"I think it's never too late to support these innocent people," she said. "I think it's never too late to support the Jewish community."

Students for Justice in Palestine sees universities' role differently. The student activist group (which the Anti-Defamation League has roundly criticized) has chapters at hundreds of U.S. campuses and has been behind many of the recent protests. The organization's steering committee — a mix of both current students and recent graduates — told NPR over email that they don't believe universities always need to take a public stance on global events.

But they say universities do have an obligation to defend students' rights to speak and protest, and protect them from smear campaigns and doxxing. They said public university statements have maligned pro-Palestinian protests as support for violence, "even while vocally affirming their right to free speech."

"Universities have intentionally abandoned Palestinian, Arab, and anti-Zionist students in this political moment, giving tacit support to the dangerous backlash they face," they added.

Sainath, the Palestine Legal attorney, says she has seen a pattern of schools putting out statements that only mention the pain and loss of Israeli and Jewish students, "basically erasing Palestinian pain."

Students from all backgrounds and viewpoints are hurting, and the first priority of any college should be to respond to that human suffering, says Patel, of Interfaith America.

"That is not both sides-ism," he says. "That is: There is a human being in front of me whose family is in danger and that person is hurting and I am going to show that person care."

What if colleges stopped weighing in altogether?

Alex Morey, the director of campus rights advocacy at civil liberties nonprofit FIRE, said universities are under pressure — and competing demands — to weigh in on current events.

She says institutions were in a similar position in 2020, with the confluence of racial justice protests, a raging pandemic and a high-stakes presidential election. Since then, it's been common for schools to release statements about all sorts of issues.

"But then they get to things like the war in the Middle East, where there's really no correct answer, yet they have put themselves in a situation where not saying anything is unusual for them," Morey adds. "And so when they don't say anything, what does that mean?"

She says universities are now in a "no-win position" because of this trend. But she sees a way out — and it's following the footsteps of places like Stanford and Northwestern, and removing themselves from the debate.

Morey would like more of them to say: "We are a university that plays host to these debates of issues that are of incredible importance. We are not going to put our thumb on the scale as the university one way or another because that will chill the environment for free expression, for scholarly inquiry."

She says those institutions will get pushback in the immediate term, but will make their lives much easier in the medium- and long-term.

She says there are other ways university leaders can support students when difficult things are going on in the world, like offering condolences and counseling services.

"The best thing they can do when these divisive issues come up is do their university thing," she adds. "That's what they do best: Host these debates, have students come together in a way that is constructive and in a way that students feel like they have a place to be heard and that the debate can go on in a scholarly, civil way."

 

 

 

[Auburn85 438]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/18/business/upenn-donor-israel/index.html

 

 

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‘Deeply ashamed.’ Another major UPenn backer halts donations and calls on other Jews to do the same

Matt Egan

October 18

 

Venture capitalist David Magerman is the latest major donor to the University of Pennsylvania cutting off financial support to the Ivy League school, and he’s calling for all “self-respecting” Jews to do the same.

Hedge fund billionaire Cliff Asness, another major backer of UPenn, is similarly halting donations. A growing list of high-profile donors have pulled their funding from the prestigious university, arguing UPenn leaders did not go far enough to condemn a multiday Palestine Writes Literature Festival that took place last month on campus. UPenn leaders acknowledged that event included speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks, and UPenn leaders issued a statement ahead of the festival condemning antisemitism broadly, though not the festival specifically.

That simmering resentment turned to a boil in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel, and a growing number of donors have lashed out against the university’s handling of antisemitism.

Magerman, a UPenn graduate known for building trading algorithms at hedge fund giant Renaissance Technologies, posted a letter on Tuesday sent to UPenn leaders in which he took issue with UPenn President Liz Magill’s decision to hold the festival and her initial response to the terror attacks on Israel.

“I am deeply ashamed of my association with the University of Pennsylvania. I refuse to donate another dollar to Penn,” Magmeran wrote in the letter to Magill and Scott Bok, chair of the school’s board of trustees.

Magerman, who co-founded a seed-stage venture capital fund that invests in artificial intelligence and machine learning, described himself as a “major donor” to UPenn as well as a Torah-observant Jew.

“Jews have played an extraordinary role in the history and legacy of the University of Pennsylvania. And Jews have benefitted from their affiliation with Penn,” Magerman wrote. “But regardless of the economic and social value of a Penn or Wharton degree, there is no place for self-respecting Jewish people at an institution that supports evil.”

In an email sent to Magill on Monday and confirmed by CNN, Asness said he won’t consider making another donation at UPenn until there is “meaningful change” at the school. The founder of AQR Capital Management said he just finished a five-year pledge to the university.

Asness cited the Palestine Writes festival, the university’s initial response to the Hamas terror attacks and a broader “drift away from true freedom of thought, expression and speech” at UPenn and other schools.

“I do not like making something like this about money – but it appears to be one of the only paths that has any hope of mattering, and it has become clear that it is the only voice some of us have,” Asness wrote.

Asness and Magerman join private-equity billionaire Marc Rowan, former US Ambassador Jon Huntsman and other high-profile UPenn donors vowing to close their checkbooks in protest. Billionaire Ronald Lauder, another powerful financial backer of school, is threatening to do the same if more isn’t done to fight antisemitism.

Organizers of the Palestine Writes festival denied that it embraced antisemitism, according to UPenn student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Susan Abulhawa, executive director of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, told CNN the festival was meant to celebrate Palestinian culture and literature and talk about “our predicament” and “resistance.”

Magerman said he is not calling for Magill to resign because it would be “wholly inadequate,” arguing UPenn’s moral foundation needs to be completely rebuilt “from the ground up.”

“You have shown me who you are. My only remaining hope is that all self-respecting Jews, and all moral citizens of the world, dissociate themselves from Penn,” Magerman wrote.

In response, UPenn referred CNN to a statement Magill issued on Tuesday stressing the school has a “moral responsibility to combat antisemitism and to educate our community to recognize and reject hate in all its forms.”

“Alumni are important members of the Penn community,” Magill said. “I hear their anger, pain, and frustration and am taking action to make clear that I stand, and Penn stands, emphatically against the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel and against antisemitism.”

UPenn also shared a letter published last month in The Daily Pennsylvanian that was penned by dozens of members of the school’s Jewish community expressing “enthusiasm” for the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.

“We look forward to celebrating this extraordinary gathering of our Palestinian classmates, students, colleagues, and neighbors,” that September 22nd letter said.

Beyond voicing support for the Palestine literary festival, the members of the Jewish community strongly criticized Magill’s September 12 statement condemning antisemitism as for causing “fears for students’ safety” and potentially stifling free expression.

“By using this celebration of Palestinian literary traditions as an occasion to condemn antisemitism,” they wrote, “your statement further marginalizes Palestinian experiences on campus, while supporting attempts to conflate Palestinian liberation with antisemitism.”

The back-and-forth over an event that took place last month, well before the Hamas terror attacks on Israel, underscores the pressure on university leaders to balance freedom of speech issues with fighting hate speech in general and antisemitism in particular.

 

I don't mind the fact that these donors express their views with their words and checkbooks. Freedom of speech and how universities police it has always been a hot topic. I just don't understand why Israel is where these recent donors draw the line when it comes to free speech.

 

[Cardin Drake 2,085]

19 minutes ago, Auburn85 said:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/18/business/upenn-donor-israel/index.html

 

 

I don't mind the fact that these donors express their views with their words and checkbooks. Freedom of speech and how universities police it has always been a hot topic. I just don't understand why Israel is where these recent donors draw the line when it comes to free speech.

 

Really? You don't understand why a Jewish donor might be offended when students and faculty are siding with Hamas right after Hamas attacked Israel and intentionally slaughtered women and children. 

[Auburn85 438]

1 hour ago, Cardin Drake said:

Really? You don't understand why a Jewish donor might be offended when students and faculty are siding with Hamas right after Hamas attacked Israel and intentionally slaughtered women and children. 

That is correct.

 

Universities across the country have always been dealing with controversial speakers, commencement speakers, controversial speech and actions by faculty and students.

 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was allowed to speak and wasn't shouted down at Columbia.

Jim Gilchrist was not allowed to speak at Columbia.

 

Shellyne Rodriguez wasn't punished for pushing over a table and pushing off the contents of the table at pro life space. She wasn't punished until she put a machete to a reporter's neck.

 

A Vermont college had a convicted cop killer from prison do its commencement speech as a recorded video.

 

It's bad enough colleges aren't consistent in their free speech policy.  Point is, one shouldn't be so selective when it comes to free speech.

Edited October 18, 2023 by Auburn85

[AURex 2,262]

Donors are of the opinion that, because they give money to a university, they should be able to dictate the programs, events, course content, professorial stances, research priorities, etc. Yes, it is their money. But there are universities that support freedom of speech on all subjects and all political angles.

Yep, some Jewish donors are now getting their panties in a wad because the university they graduated from actually allowed some students and faculty to voice an opinion they do not like. OMG. Someone said something they disagree with!

This has been going on forever. Back in my day at Auburn, big money Auburn donors and board members were totally spastic with venom that students were allowed to protest the Vietnam War and allowed to speak out against the racist politics of George Wallace.

I am not an anti-semitic defender of Hamas. I do support freedom of speech in academic institutions. And I also support the choices of donors to contribute their money wherever they want, no matter why they choose to do so.

 

[Cardin Drake 2,085]

6 hours ago, Auburn85 said:

That is correct.

 

Universities across the country have always been dealing with controversial speakers, commencement speakers, controversial speech and actions by faculty and students.

 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was allowed to speak and wasn't shouted down at Columbia.

Jim Gilchrist was not allowed to speak at Columbia.

 

Shellyne Rodriguez wasn't punished for pushing over a table and pushing off the contents of the table at pro life space. She wasn't punished until she put a machete to a reporter's neck.

 

A Vermont college had a convicted cop killer from prison do its commencement speech as a recorded video.

 

It's bad enough colleges aren't consistent in their free speech policy.  Point is, one shouldn't be so selective when it comes to free speech.

Well, I see your point.   Universities themselves tend to punish those who speak on the conservative side, and allow almost anything from the left.  That's wrong, but in the Penn case, people tend to conflate free speech with the consequences of your free speech.  People tend to give students a pass for saying ridiculous things, but once they perceive that the administration themselves agree with those abhorrent opinions, the money is liable to stop flowing.

[DKW 86 7,914]

I think some of you are entirely missing the meaning of Free Speech. 

No one is taking anything down or off a wall somewhere. No one.

No one is losing a twitter account, etc. 

If you speak your mind you have to be able to take losing because of your beliefs. 

Some of you are confusing consequences and Freedom Speech Rights. 

Express yourself. But when others change their behaviors based on your statements that is them using their Freedom Speech as well. 

When grownups act like petulant little kids and whine when reality slaps them up side the head, well...WTH did you think was going to happen?

If some donors takes the cash away, look at them, say we disagree, and say farewell. That's what a grownup does. 

[DKW 86 7,914]

And this does go both ways. If a Christian organization stands up and runs off customers, then they better be willing to deal with the Consequences. Today, some really immature kids at Harvard are getting a bought lesson in Free Speech Consequences. They are not being denied Free Speech. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by DKW 86