Michael Foran has had to cancel the remaining lectures on Sex, GI and the law.....

[impossibletoday]

due to bullying and harassment of those students wanting to attend.

https://x.com/i/status/2063577885928013833

I know - disgraceful isn't it. I work in a University elsewhere and my particular unit is totally captured. Big fan of Michael and his erudition.

That is really disappointing behaviour by those students that led to this decision. Imagine being at university and not being able to cope with opinions that don't match yours and instead of attending and listening and asking questions that might show flaws in Michael's thinking, you work to get that event cancelled or drown out any ability to hear his words.

Ffs - why are universities allowing this to happen? How are these fuckwits going to cope in the real world? Do they think they can curate the whole world to only express views they agree with? Reality is not social media where you can mute or block everyone you don't agree with

@Theeyeballsintheskyit's because "Impact" has encouraged academics to be activists and certain sections/units of the University community are wholeheartedly committed to 'Rightthink' and activism. As someone once said to me, diversity seems to mean people who look different, but think the same.

Yes agree plus of course students are now paying customers so universities seem a lot less inclined to say no to them

I'd be interested to know if the university is doing anything about this.

They will probably argue that the students have a right to protest, but if they are bullying and harassing attendees and suppressing other people's free speech, then this crosses a line and the university should take action. The problem is that students engage in this type of behaviour with impunity because they don't expect consequences (and then they carry this attitude into the workplace when they graduate).

I wonder if Michael can do the lectures online? He shouldn't have to of course, but people who want to hear him talk shouldn't be deprived of the opportunity. And perhaps more will attend online where they don't have to run the gauntlet of deranged activists.

Thats a good idea-to try running them online. But ultimately the University should step in and condone the bullying...

Condone? Surely you mean condemn?

This is it in a nutshell.

It is almost time to stop going to university if thought is not allowed but suppressed instead.

Employers must be finding a lot of empty headed students are coming through.

That’s a great idea - can anyone on X suggest it? I’d love to see them!

When Wiiam Hague became Oxford's Chancellor he made a big thing out of freedom of speech. Let's see if his words meant anything

This is sheer madness. He is not even expressing a personal opinion. He is setting out what the law is, which are just facts. Where he identifies an unsettled area of law he will look at it from all angles. So it is not even about free speech.

The whole thing is sheer bloody madness, though, right? As long as the bullies can convince themselves and everyone they associate with that they are on the RSOH, nothing else matters. Not the law, not other people's rights, and especially not the fact that they might learn something. Heaven forbid!

Of course, but how the loons justify this in their own heads is something i would like to hear.

They try to shut our mouths and our ears.

The students organising the protests were openly inciting protesters to target any students attending, as well.

That seems to me to be terrorism.

Julie Bindel

https://x.com/i/status/2063677350819037333

This sort of forcible censorship isn't entirely new. Back in the very early seventies, Hans Eysenck was due to give a lecture at a British university and was violently prevented from doing so by a small but very vocal minority of the students there. But he was a visiting lecturer, not a member of the university's staff.

Maybe that's what employers want. People who are credulous and easily controlled.

Doing them online is a great idea in the circumstances if the University doesn't stop this obvious harassment - much more accessible to more people and people scared of being attacked if they turn up in person can attend online without this risk.

The University does online interviews now I believe, so it should be possible.

However it would be nice for a University to condemn such harassment and intimidation and allow people to have freedom of speech and freedom of academic discussion in person.

University students are babied by universities now (literally - they're treated as children towards whom the university owes a duty of care similar to a guardian towards a school aged child). The knock on effect for society is shit.

The behaviour in the video on Julie Bindel's X account is just utterly juvenile. They're behaving like tantrumming toddlers, except bigger and more intimidating. Because they have no coherent argument.

So Michael Foran can't do his job properly. How depressing.

Surely these students should at a minimum face disciplinary actions? They should not be able to continue with their degrees if they are behaving in this way towards Faculty members and other students.

Very disappointing. He’s hardly a marginalised, hardcore outsider.

As pp said, it's an interesting contrast with the recent Cambridge debate.
Awkward for Oxford.