Academics - WTF is going on?

Flora there was a long debate and I may have forgotten some of the finer points. But it wasn't a case of refusing to commemorate the Holocaust (or those other days, which I hadn't heard of) - it was refusing to commemorate those 4 events at the exclusion of anything else.

The revised motion was much more inclusive. And, as per my links, GS held its biggest ever Holocaust Memorial service last week, which is grand.

The revised motion is at this link, dated November 2014. www.goldsmithssu.org/representation/studentassembly/

I'm not the SU's biggest supporter but I think they made the right decision on the remembrance motion.

And (back on thread topic) I agree with FuckOff. Sigh. I am an undercover radfem at university.

The only people I'll be listening to when it comes to debates around prostitution are exited women. Not pimps, not their hand maidenly supporters, but women like Rebecca Mott and Rachel Moran.

And apologies DWH for thinking you hadn't read KS's blog, it's clear now that you merely failed to understand it.

People might be interested in this THE article about 'safe spaces'.

FuckOffGroundhog what/who do you mean?

All these "feminists", the ones who are horrified by swerfs how many of them are out there getting themselves jobs at the Spearmint Rhino?

And yes - we probably will put it on somewhere else in London soon. It will be part of the Leicester Comedy Festival and hopefully the Brighton Fringe.

Well I wish her good luck with that as Brighton feminism is just teaming with "sex positivity"

Do you notice liberal feminist always seem to shout hardest when they have a male backer? Pimps telling them prostitutes really want to be prostitutes. And transwomen defining what it means to be a woman.

Goldsmiths had an event last week where over 100 people attended a memorial service.

www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2015/01/holocaust-memorial-day-service-at-goldsmiths-college/

www.goldsmithssu.org/news/article/6013/Goldsmiths-SU-holds-successful-Holocaust-Remembrance-event/

Flora The SU didn't refuse to commemorate the Holocaust. It refused to focus on the commemoration of 4 specified events. It was suggested that the motion be resubmitted to be more inclusive, rather than submit a separate motion.

Thanks almond I've just looked again at the motions and this was the original proposition: 'The Student Union shall organise commemorative events for students and members of the public on Holocaust Memorial Day (27th of January), on the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism (23rd of August annually), on the Holodomor Genocide Memorial Day Act (4th Saturday in November, Annually) and on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (24th April annually).'

The revised motion, submitted in November, was more inclusive and less specific (i.e. didn't say exactly which events should be commemorated) and allocated an annual budget for commemorations.

Sunshine, both the original motions are available to see online, as are the comments from the SU officer involved.

I suspect cock up over conspiracy in this instance. I feel a bit sorry for all involved.

almondcakes Goldsmiths held an event commemorating the Holocaust last week.

I was at the meeting at which the motion to which you refer was discussed. The original motion specified several specific memorial events, all of which were European (thus ignoring e.g. Rwanda) and would have made events mandatory, which is not the SU's role.

People at the meeting suggested that the motion be redrafted to make it more inclusive, for example including the Transgender Day of Remembrance and non-European genocides.

An SU officer offered to work with the proposer on a new version of the motion but was rebuffed. The proposer then wrote an unpleasant and dishonest internet post saying that we'd refused to commemorate the Holocaust.

SEB, I think the SU have done two things wrong:

1. Not got a trained equality and diversity officer to give the student from the comedy soc legal advice.

1. Issued a dishonest statement about what happened.

I disagree with other policy decisions they have made too. Refusing to support commemoration of the Holocaust on the grounds that it is 'Eurocentric and colonialist.'

yy buffy, but it's the perception isn't it. i've had parents ringing up demanding to know things about their son or daughter's progress, because from their POV they are paying and have a right to know. erm, no, that's not how it works

So let me see

Students protest over lads mags and we are all about the rights of the students to be protected over free speech.

Sale of the Sun banned because of page 3 so we are all about the rights of the students to be protected from images over free speech,

Smurfwhaite gets told she is not wanted by some students and they are against free speech and this is wrong.

I got that right? Personally I still love the 8 tickets sold and the usual main party of her audience outside protesting, that makes a beautiful image.

while i don't disagree with you, you don't really get much choice about the treating students as consumers thing. when they are taking on upwards of £30k debt, they will behave like consumers

I do feel sorry for the person who made the decision, who is almost certainly an unpaid student fitting in running a small comedy society around their studies.

If they could potentially get into trouble with legal issues or the university's regulations, they are going to err on the side of caution. There should be somebody at the university who has a qualification in and a post in equality and diversity. The student could then have asked them and been in the clear over any alleged wrongdoing.

They had something big to lose. They would have been held accountable. The comedian does still have freedom of speech to perform elsewhere, and has performed the show in the past.

I do not think it is of the same level as the rad fem conference stuff where there is a campaign to stop them speaking anywhere ever.

It isn't a different definition of safe space. Any university will have to have security policies in place regardless of whether or not equal ops reps have created a safe space policy.

For example, if too many people were let into an event and could be injured as a consequence, that is a security issue. It isn't covered by a safe spaces policy which is about speech, images etc.

She has all the messages she was sent up on her blog. She was told on the first of February at 5.45 pm... 'I have to send you a passage about our safe space policy outlining kinda what you can or can't say.'

AT 19.19 she was told it was being cancelled both because of security around the picket and because of the repercussions for the comedy society over what she might say.

At 19.21 she was told it was because there might be a breach of the safe spaces policy.

At 19.24 she was told it was because there were complaints.

At 20.27 she was told there were five complaints about her.

It saddens me that my university has effectively no-platformed a woman on the basis of a difference of opinion. FFS.