French advocates a middle road between comments like Steven Thrasher's, which simply endorse students' passion as prior to thought, and administrations that have called the cops on the stu…
French advocates a middle road between comments like Steven Thrasher's, which simply endorse students' passion as prior to thought, and administrations that have called the cops on the students (and then there's Mike Johnson's cynical trip to Columbia to call for the National Guard!--didn't go so well at Kent State and Jackson State, did it?). He advocates setting "content-neutral" rules for student protest, without taking sides, so that demonstrators are given appropriate spaces for their rallies, while declaring other spaces, methods, and times out of bounds, so that other students can attend classes without harassment and are not kept awake by drums outside their dorms in the middle of the night. These rules apply equally to pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
I am please to learn that Northwestern has adopted a similar approach, adding several "interim addend[a]" to the student code of conduct that are very much what French recommends. I've been vexed with NU because of the stadium deal, but I think they got this more or less right:
I would add that David French is not on my end of the political spectrum. He is a conservative and I'm not. I disagree with him on important matters of policy (e.g., the permissibility of abortion). But he is an intellectually scrupulous and lucid writer. I learn more from him than from gung-ho liberal columnists who tell me what I already believe.
Mr. Hayden, you too are an intellectually scrupulous and lucid writer. Keep it up!
Thank you for this clear and thoughtful essay. It reaches conclusions similar to those of David French in his op-ed in the NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/28/opinion/protests-college-free-speech.html
French advocates a middle road between comments like Steven Thrasher's, which simply endorse students' passion as prior to thought, and administrations that have called the cops on the students (and then there's Mike Johnson's cynical trip to Columbia to call for the National Guard!--didn't go so well at Kent State and Jackson State, did it?). He advocates setting "content-neutral" rules for student protest, without taking sides, so that demonstrators are given appropriate spaces for their rallies, while declaring other spaces, methods, and times out of bounds, so that other students can attend classes without harassment and are not kept awake by drums outside their dorms in the middle of the night. These rules apply equally to pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
I am please to learn that Northwestern has adopted a similar approach, adding several "interim addend[a]" to the student code of conduct that are very much what French recommends. I've been vexed with NU because of the stadium deal, but I think they got this more or less right:
https://www.northwestern.edu/leadership-notes/2024/northwestern-enacts-interim-addendum-to-student-code-of-conduct.html
I would add that David French is not on my end of the political spectrum. He is a conservative and I'm not. I disagree with him on important matters of policy (e.g., the permissibility of abortion). But he is an intellectually scrupulous and lucid writer. I learn more from him than from gung-ho liberal columnists who tell me what I already believe.
Mr. Hayden, you too are an intellectually scrupulous and lucid writer. Keep it up!