Swarthmore Faculty Sign Open Letter for Freedom of Expression

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

My DD graduated last month, and she supports her classmates even if she disagrees with some of their choices regarding the ways in which they express their opinions. She feels that the administration has overreacted, and it seems many of the faculty members agree. There were protests at the graduation ceremony, but no one seemed particularly fazed about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Frankly, is there any other kind at Swarthmore?

There’s plenty of professors with good judgment at Swarthmore. Notice how few faculty signed this letter. I count 11. There are over 250 full-time faculty. Like many institutions, Swarthmore is coming out of the haze of the Post Covid peak woke era.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

My DD graduated last month, and she supports her classmates even if she disagrees with some of their choices regarding the ways in which they express their opinions. She feels that the administration has overreacted, and it seems many of the faculty members agree. There were protests at the graduation ceremony, but no one seemed particularly fazed about them.

Interesting, how does she feel the administration overreacted? There would be great to get the thoughts of a recent student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Frankly, is there any other kind at Swarthmore?

There’s plenty of professors with good judgment at Swarthmore. Notice how few faculty signed this letter. I count 11. There are over 250 full-time faculty. Like many institutions, Swarthmore is coming out of the haze of the Post Covid peak woke era.

The silence of the >95% of faculty who did NOT sign this letter is pretty loud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Conveniently ignores the admin getting rid of all expression and free speech protections, without giving faculty any say, because that would have nuance and that would mean we’d have to actually have a discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Conveniently ignores the admin getting rid of all expression and free speech protections, without giving faculty any say, because that would have nuance and that would mean we’d have to actually have a discussion.

Yeah, it sure is hard to answer these accusations meaningfully without knowing how Swat got “rid of all expression and free speech protections.” GMAB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Frankly, is there any other kind at Swarthmore?

Well a different poster said they’re all fascists, so maybe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Conveniently ignores the admin getting rid of all expression and free speech protections, without giving faculty any say, because that would have nuance and that would mean we’d have to actually have a discussion.

The irony of someone arguing for nuance while stating absolutely that the admin got rid of ALL expression and free speech protection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Frankly, is there any other kind at Swarthmore?

There’s plenty of professors with good judgment at Swarthmore. Notice how few faculty signed this letter. I count 11. There are over 250 full-time faculty. Like many institutions, Swarthmore is coming out of the haze of the Post Covid peak woke era.

The silence of the >95% of faculty who did NOT sign this letter is pretty loud.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Conveniently ignores the admin getting rid of all expression and free speech protections, without giving faculty any say, because that would have nuance and that would mean we’d have to actually have a discussion.

The irony of someone arguing for nuance while stating absolutely that the admin got rid of ALL expression and free speech protection.

So you are willing to engage, only if it is to be snarky! So, what DID the admin actually do so we can turn this around into something product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll summarize. A handful of far-left faculty wrote a letter bemoaning the fact that student pro-Palestinian activists who have defaced buildings and disrupted campus operations are being held accountable for their actions.

The writer is saying this is because Swat doesn’t believe in free speech. It’s just more Hamas supporting propaganda. Best to ignore. Swat is navigating a difficult situation with generally good judgement. My kid is there and we read the memos and support the administration.

Can you show how they're far left?

[Anonymous]

I'm bored. This is dumb.

I went to college during Apartheid. The protests today are hardly protests, and the ones trying to peddle that this is some far left extremism are mostly people happy about genocide, and who don't need to be taken seriously (also like Russian bots but that's a whole other point).

Students used to chain themselves to admin buildings and protest for weeks. This isn't new. These colleges freaking out, because the kids are not behaving in the respectful way is such administrative bs. It's an extension on the War on Fun. When they arrested the students, they overstepped and Franky should've just gone home if zionism is so important to them. No one is "harmed' by words. Words aren't violence, neither are symbols, flags of hate groups you don't like, etc. The woke is on all sides and it's obnoxious, relentless, and stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the behaviors be a few who went beyond the reasonable acceptable behavior last year (or two) makes this a very smart move.
Of course you can protest, but you can’t block other students from campus locations or resources.

Yes, applications at Swarthmore are down over 10% from the high school class of 2022. People hesitate to apply to an expensive school where they’ll have to circumvent political obstacles to get an education.

This isn't true. Applications aren't down.

[Anonymous]

Like it or not, progressives have had a chilling effect on a lot of campuses. And universities need to confront that. That doesn't mean administrations are right wing fascists or MAGA. It's not a binary thing. It's about creating an environment conducive to research, the exchange of ideas, free speech and so on. And unfortunately progressives will absolutely destroy anyone that disagrees with them. They create a very oppressive environment and schools are trying to figure out how to deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like it or not, progressives have had a chilling effect on a lot of campuses. And universities need to confront that. That doesn't mean administrations are right wing fascists or MAGA. It's not a binary thing. It's about creating an environment conducive to research, the exchange of ideas, free speech and so on. And unfortunately progressives will absolutely destroy anyone that disagrees with them. They create a very oppressive environment and schools are trying to figure out how to deal with it.

Yes because Hillsdale and liberty are bastions of free speech and not at all oppressive to anyone who isn't like them