Opinion Universities should not be afraid of disputed ideas

Inside the amphitheater, the event continued as planned. The hundreds of students who remained heard and learned. They looked in a world beyond shouted slogans and edited stories. They have learned about the politics and dynamics of the region’s power and the evolving national identities and resonances of the previous empires that continue to form the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Experts were heard closely involved in previous peace processes explaining why their efforts have failed and how future leaders could succeed one day. The full video was posted online, so anyone interested can also benefit.

If Cornell was a business we could call the event a failure: the news coverage only showed the disorder and ignored the rest. Fortunately for our students, Cornell is not a business. We are university. And universities, despite the rapid escalation of political, legal and economic dangers, cannot afford to grant public discourse and free exchange of ideas.

In a democracy, universities are serving to imprison and promote expertise, knowledge and democratic rules that promote societies and for which universities themselves are based on their continued existence. Ronald Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins, put it well in his book on Higher Education and Democracy when he wrote that colleges and universities are “institutions that are committed to freedom of research” in questioning ideas and discussions through discussion and discussion and discussion and discussion Individuals are achieved through freedom of study. “

The impact of our universities does not come from the small part of their ability to equip students with skills to critically evaluate the evidence, to examine issues from multiple perspectives, to substantially participate in the exchange of ideas, and to deal with the difficult and the complex.

Republics are not silent positions and no universities. They are vibrant, active and sometimes unruly. The differences are shown, the disputes, the increasing voices are supported. And yes, among our nearly 27,000 students, there are some who feel justified to violate the rules of respect for interaction, who seek to promote their own agendas by muted people and ideas with whom they disagree. When that happens, we respond in ways that protect everyone’s rights to speak and learn.