Free Speech Under Attack In Academia

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From penal colony to loony bin...


Margaret Gardner, who has been elected as the next chair of Universities Australia, said the job of higher education institutions is not only to prepare graduates for new careers, but to promote “diversity” and “openness”, and “tackle rhetoric against immigrants”.


Professor Gardner made the remarks in response to a question on whether the UK’s vote to leave the European Union (EU) and Donald Trump’s election in the U.S. might make Australian universities more attractive to academics and international students. Vice-chancellor of Monash University in Melbourne, Gardner stressed that universities in the Anglophone nations have a “shared challenge” in facing down opposition to mass immigration.

“All universities across the world, including our colleagues in the US and UK… actually have a role through our social scientists, for example, and others in basically countering uninformed views about immigration and in countering views that are racist or in other ways attempt to encourage xenophobic behaviour. That’s a role we all share,” she told Times Higher Education. “We have a responsibility to build a diverse student population because with diversity comes cultural understanding and openness and all the things that are fundamental to building knowledge and building the capabilities to work in the world… an increasingly globalised world.”

However, not everyone would agree with the assessment of Professor Gardner, an economist and specialist in industrial relations. Respected Australian academic and researcher Frank Salter, known for his extensive research on ‘diversity’, has slammed the “ideological corruption of the humanities and social sciences” on the subject. “Unrestricted migration would harm Australia’s national interests in ways documented by scholars in economics, sociology and related disciplines. Much of the harm is predictable from what is known about the dysfunctions of diversity.” Pointing out that increased diversity is associated with “reduced democracy, slowed economic growth, falling social cohesion and foreign aid, as well as rising corruption and risk of civil conflict”, the anthropologist and ethnologist blasted universities for presenting the phenomenon as “an unalloyed benefit”.

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-must-tackle-rhetoric-against-immigrants


facing down opposition to mass immigration

Groupthink: The practice of thinking or making decisions as a group, resulting typically in unchallenged, poor-quality decision-making.



Is not what any university is about. It's about educating young people and equipping them to arrive at their own conclusions, independently.

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"""said the job of higher education institutions is not only to prepare graduates for new careers, but to promote “diversity” and “openness”, and “tackle rhetoric against immigrants”."""

it is not a universities place to prepare for any one for a career
and it is most certainly not a universities job to promote any thing what so ever let alone diversity /openness etc etc

universities are exist to promote and delight in individual learnings ..expanding knowledge.. ..teaching the basics of the disiplines.. exploring ideas and new thinking
pushing the boundries ..etc etc etc..university should not be considered and end .. but preparation for new thinking..new inventions and innovations


"""Much of the harm is predictable from what is known about the dysfunctions of diversity.” Pointing out that increased diversity is associated with “reduced democracy, slowed economic growth, falling social cohesion and foreign aid, as well as rising corruption and risk of civil conflict”, the anthropologist and ethnologist blasted universities for presenting the phenomenon as “an unalloyed benefit”""".

remember the glory that was Rome and remember WHY Rome fell