Former Brandeis President on Gaza Protests: Schools Must Protect Free Expression on Campus

[Uncle Joe]

We look at how university administrators have responded to Palestine solidarity protests by students with Frederick Lawrence, former president of Brandeis University and now the CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and a lecturer at Georgetown Law School. Brandeis was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community in the wake of the Holocaust and named after the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, the celebrated free speech advocate Louis Brandeis. Lawrence says the nationwide university crackdown on student protesters is a worrying violation of the principles of academic freedom. "Provoking people, challenging people, asking difficult questions, making people uncomfortable, that's part of the price of living in a democracy," he says. He also notes that what constitutes a threat to campus safety should be narrowly defined. "You are not entitled to be intellectually safe. You are entitled to be physically safe."

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[ProfessorPlum]

1. Glad to see someone finally sticking up for these obviously constitutional rights

for peaceful protest. The rest of the establishment have their collective heads up their asses and would rather let a genocide happen than agree with a student that it's wrong.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Well the corporate media has to check with their sponsors first.

Would sticking up for common decency be politically/profitably prudent?

If it is great, we're all on board!