Panel discusses free speech, microaggressions
Christina VosbikianOn Friday, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter moderated a panel that focused on the responsibility of universities to enforce individual rights to expression and protection.Panelists included Vice President and General Counsel at Northern Illinois University Jerry Blakemore ’76, Vice President for Ethics and Compliance at Purdue University Alysa Christmas Rollock ’81, freelance journalist Christopher Shea ’91 and Program Coordinator for the Office of Dean of Undergraduate Students Jeanne Laymon ’11.In her opening statement, Minter explained that the University has a deep commitment to freedom of expression and the prohibition of discrimination.“What we are seeing now, culturally, is a moment where those two important values are sometimes coming into conflict,” she said.Shea explained that the most pervasive issues on American college campuses have included the "disinvitation" of controversial speakers, the creation of safe spaces for students, restrictions on microaggressions and the disbandment of fraternities conducting racist actions.He explained that during his time as an investigative journalist on different college campuses, he noticed a trend in how students interacted with notions of safety in relation to free speech.“Students use the rhetoric of safety to describe how they want to feel on campus, and it applies not just to physical safety but to words that make them feel unsafe on campus," Shea said.Shea said at the University, he interviewed students and professors in hopes of finding diverging viewpoints on the necessity of protective safety.
