https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/04/the_silencing_of_voices_on_college_campuses.html
“She and I talk openly in one another’s homes, but we know 宾语从句we can’t talk to anyone else.”
This is not a historic quote from the days of Stalinist suppression in the Soviet Union. It is message 定语从句I recently received from a graduate faculty professor in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) field 分词状语referring to the secrecy 定语从句with which she talks to her friend 定语从句who works in university student services.
Today on college campuses, faculty are afraid to speak about a number of issues for fear of being verbally mobbed and denounced by angry students and faculty colleagues.
I know. Faculty, students, and administrators at the University of Rhode Island have recently denounced me for daring to write in 4W.pub, 同位语a feminist public forum, 宾语从句that humans cannot change their sex and children are not born the wrong bodies. I wrote 宾语从句that the belief 同位语从句that people can change their biological sex is a fantasy.
Now, such commonsensical statements are deemed so offensive 状语从句that I must be condemned by publicly issued university statements.
I am not alone in this experience. 状语从句After my public denunciation was publicized a psychology professor, at another university wrote, “I am reaching out… it is happening to me at my university. Last week, I was denounced… by an entire academic department! I have found no one within the university 定语从句who is willing to publicly support me — particularly administration.”
From inside my own academic institution, the University of Rhode Island (URI), I heard, “I could put myself in hot water… merely by sending this email.” In the last week, I’ve received dozens of messages like this from faculty and graduate students at universities across the country.
What is going on in universities today that faculty are afraid to speak, except to whisper in private or send emails pleading for confidentiality? We have reached a postmodern era 定语从句where facts are irrelevant and only identity and feelings matter. 状语从句If you dissent from the new regime of ideas, you will be verbally set upon by a mob of enraged students, faculty, and “diversity and inclusion” administrators. There will be calls for you to be “disappeared” from campus.
In some corners of campus, there is no respect for truth anymore; misquoting and distorting 宾语从句what I wrote is perfectly acceptable. A repeated claim in the denouncements and in the media is 表语从句that I am anti-transgender. 状语从句If you read the essay, you will see that I am not. 主语从句What I am doing is 动名词speaking up for young people who are being harmed and their bodies mutilated and sterilized in the name of “gender identity” or transgenderism. Young people suffering feelings of confusion become immersed in social media forums 定语从句where they are told 宾语从句that the solution to their problems is to change their sex. 状语从句As I made clear in the essay, I support everyone to freely choose their gender expression, i.e., how masculine or feminine they want to appear. I only criticize the false claim同位语从句 that you can change your biological sex.
Sadly,状语从句 after I was publicly denounced, I’ve heard from graduate students in many disciplines 定语从句who tell me they must keep silent about their views on a number of topics, not just gender identity, if they want to graduate and get a job. One wrote: “I am a student in a MSW (Master of Social Work) program… Please don’t share this email with anyone. I would literally be thrown out of the MSW program for my thoughts.” Another graduate student wrote: “I’m currently trying to work out how to write my thesis without risking a potentially career damaging backlash from members of my department.”
The fear 定语从句that exists in universities is growing. Those faculty and students,定语从句 who care about truth, are increasingly self-censoring to avoid being ostracized and condemned or made unable to finish graduate degrees.
I regularly receive messages from people 定语从句who compared URI’s attempt to cancel my free speech to communist suppression: “I grew up in a totalitarian regime… I am watching with shock and horror to see 宾语从句what is happening in the US with the cancel culture, identity politics, and the suppression of opinions 定语从句that don’t fit with the current progressive dogma.”
Universities must reverse course or parents are not going to pay money to send their children there. They are going to see 宾语从句what a professor of philosophy wrote to me, I “am greatly saddened at the demise of the university as place to pursue knowledge.”
So, what am I doing? I’m fighting back. I’ve advocated for the rights of victims all my adult life. I won’t stop now.
Fortunately, I saw the curtain of censorship and retaliation descending on campus in time to react. So, I secured a civil rights attorney who specializes in campus free speech and I became a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance. Together we will stand up for free speech and truth.
Donna M Hughes is a Professor & Eleanor M and Oscar M Carlson Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at the University of Rhode Island
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