NEWS
Diversity forum educates faculty and staff
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Joey Waldinger Staff Writer A crowd of scholars, faculty and students sat in the Silver Maple ballroom to discuss race. UVM held its 10th annual Blackboard Jungle Symposium Mar. 30 and 31. The symposium was hosted by Office of the Vice President for Human Resources, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, according to the UVM website. The workshops and discussions are designed to allow the UVM community to gain knowledge and develop skills to better understand diversity, according to the website. One of the panelist discussions entitled “Free Speech and Hate Speech: Can They Coexist,” featured panelists who discussed universities’ role in upholding free speech. “As a public institution, UVM cannot prohibit the right to free speech, no matter how noxious, odious, or hurtful,” said University President Tom Sullivan, who was one of the panelists. There are only four instances where UVM, or any public institution, could censor speech: if the speaker was involved in criminal activity, presented a clear and present danger if the speaker said something defamatory or if they said something obscene, Sullivan said. Any speech, unless it falls into these four categories must be protected; it is the University’s responsibility to ensure an inclusive dialogue, he said. Panelists discussed the Charles Murray incident at Middlebury College and the riots at UCLA over Milo Yiannoupolous, former senior editor at Breitbart News.
MAX MCCURDY/The Vermont Cynic UVM students, faculty and Burlington community members gather for the 10th annual Blackboard Jungle Symposium March 31 in the Silver Maple Ballroom. Murray is a social scientist who, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, believes in the genetic inferiority of Latinos, black folks, women and the poor. Murray’s recent visit to Middlebury College resulted in a student protest where one professor was injured, according to a March 3 New York Times article. When colleges invite speakers who promote intolerance it is difficult for a campus to have even discourse, said Traci Griffith, a panelist and department chair of Media Studies, Journalism and Digital Arts at Saint Michael’s College. The types of speech Yiannopolous and Murray engage in creates an atmosphere of fear
and harassment, which inflicts psychological violence on the groups of people who their speech targets, Griffith said. By inviting such speakers, a university might be promoting the educational process for some students while inhibiting learning for others, she said. Emma Redden, a student at Goddard College who attended the symposium, empathized with Griffith`s worry. “The idea that we want to promote people who want to commit violence and have the power to commit violence,” Redden said.”I completely disagree with it.” During her presentation as a panelist, Annie Stevens, vice provost for student affairs, re-
called several recent incidents of xenophobia at UVM. UVM is not immune to hateful speech, she said. Though these instances were ugly, they often led to moments that helped students distinguish between expressing opinion and expressing hate, Stevens said. “We do that on college campuses by teaching students how to think critically,” she said. “There are a lot of different groups that make people feel comfortable enough to voice their opinions,” sophomore Morgan Ferland said in response to Stevens. Faculty must be educated on issues of diversity in order to then facillitate discussion with
students, said Sherwood Smith, director of UVM`s Center for Cultural Pluralism. “I don’t know if dialogue about race and social justice is balanced anywhere in the U.S....I think UVM is actively working to engage those issues,” he said. Blackboard Jungle helps the faculty increase engagement with the students by giving them a deeper understanding of key issues, Smith said.
Sullivan writing book about free speech
Sullivan Continued from pg. 2
Greta Brown Staff Writer
that Sullivan isn’t doing well as president it is routine.” The overall review process should be completed within approximately six months, concluding in October, Derr said. The committee will look back on the president’s Strategic Action Plan of 2012 and measure the success of his goals for the University, he said. “I think there is a pretty impressive track record,” Derr said. “The review is responding to the question of if we did the things we said we could, and the answer, in most cases, is yes.” Some of Sullivan’s achievements include the creation of an Academic Student Success Center, work on Virtue Field, the construction of the STEM building, the new residence hall and a commitment to a tobacco-free campus, he said. “I know he puts great value in reviews and setting goals for other people and for himself,” Gustafson said. “He keeps meticulous records of everything since he’s been here.” Students invest a lot of time and money in UVM and should know that their institution is being cared for through this review process, Derr said.
President Tom Sullivan thinks it necessary to value free speech on college campuses, according to a new book he is writing, which has yet to be named. Sullivan’s book will outline the challenges of interpreting the First Amendment and emphasize the necessity for college campuses to cultivate a civically-informed student body, Sullivan said. “President Sullivan’s timing is perfect, given our ‘Age of No Truths,’ ‘alternative facts’ and moral relativism,” Community Development and Applied Economics professor Rob Williams said. His book will focus on the importance of free speech including how social media has affected the expression of young people entering the political marketplace. “Just because social media issused for play and pastime does not mean students should not be held accountable for what students put on it,” first-year Harmony Edosomwan said. Williams said the riots at
“President Sullivan’s timing is perfect, given our ‘age of no truths,’ ‘alternative facts’ and moral relativism.” Rob Williams ENVS Professor University of California Berkeley regarding Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart News and the reaction to Charles Murray’s speech at Middlebury College are “liberal intolerance” and are directly related to the freedom of speech. “Murray’s ideas are distasteful to many, but as an invited guest of the college, he deserves to be treated with respect,” he said. “Even as his
ideas, should be thoughtfully and thoroughly challenged by those who disagree with them.” It is the college campus setting where the exchange of ideas and expression of personal viewpoints — whether one agrees with them or not — should be protected, Sullivan said. “If we can’t have a thoughtful exchange of opinions in the
educational and scholarly setting of universities, it is hard to see that operate in society at large. Society looks to us for solutions and new ideas, and it takes a robust environment to achieve that,” he said. Not only does the University have a responsibility to its students to promote free speech outside the classroom, but also uphold it within the curriculum, English professor Jamie Williamson said. “Open inquiry and the ability to pursue the study of different subjects without teaching through a scope of rigidly imposed ideologies is invaluable,” Williamson said. The book will include a chapter on the history of the law’s development, a chapter on the philosophy of the law which supports that legal rule, and the philosophy behind the First Amendment, President Sullivan said.