In a recent letter published as a full-page ad in Clemson’s student paper, professors urged the university administration to “prosecute criminally predatory behaviors and defamatory speech committed by members of the Clemson University community (including, but not limited to, those facilitated by usage of social media).”
Signed by more than 100 faculty and staff, the ad supports a list of demands crafted by the Coalition of Concerned Students, a student group known for protesting “racial injustice” and “inequality.” For instance, the faculty endorse “the construction of a multi-cultural center, a safe space for students from underrepresented groups” as well as an increase in the “percentage of people of color in faculty and administration.” The faculty also want the university administration to publicly denounce “hateful statements” made by students via Facebook, Twitter, and apps such as Yik Yak.
Fortunately, not all rationality has been lost at Clemson. In the same student paper, three professors wrote a “counter” letter to Clemson students, opposing “all attempts by Clemson faculty and administrators to silence, suppress, or ‘prosecute criminally’ thought and speech deemed vulgar, controversial, unpopular, insensitive, offensive, inappropriate, subversive, or blasphemous.”
Political science professor C. Bradley Thompson, history professor C. Alan Grubb, and physics professor Bradley S. Meyer went further: “Let all Clemson faculty and students unite to fight error and prejudice with rational arguments, critical investigation, and unfettered debate, which requires upholding the principle of free speech uncompromisingly.”
Read more here.