The worst week I saw at State College was when the provost banned a speaker and then walked it back 48 hours later

Students had already organized two dueling protests and local news showed up, then the administration folded and the whole thing left everyone more angry than before - has anyone else had a campus ban reverse like that and did it calm things down or make it worse?

4 comments

4 Comments

ben_lewis1mo ago

Did the school finally just let the speaker come and do his thing without any extra moderation? Because from what I've seen, the quick reversals are even more of a mess when the admin adds a bunch of conditions that make everyone feel like they lost anyway. The students who organized the first protest usually feel like the admin caved to pressure from the other side, and the people who wanted the speaker to have full freedom feel like their free speech got watered down. It ends up with both groups mad at the admin, which is almost impressive in a way. The whole thing just burns through everyone's time and energy for zero gain.

bennett.harper1mo ago

Ask what the speaker was actually there to talk about. Because sometimes the ban is over something dumb like a potato chip eating contest and other times it's a genuine hate speech situation, and those require totally different handling. From what I've seen, the quick reversals usually happen when the administration realizes they're inviting more bad press by banning someone than by letting them speak. Did the student groups that organized the protests end up getting any policy changes out of the mess, or was it just a big waste of everyone's Thursday?

-1

angelarivera1mo ago

Three years ago our firm had a vendor who got uninvited from a conference because someone dug up a tweet from 2012 where he said pineapple on pizza was a war crime. The organizers spent two weeks arguing about it before someone pointed out they were wasting all their planning time on pizza opinions and just let him back in. Usually if the admin can get the speaker to agree to a Q&A or a moderated format they'll reverse course pretty quick to save face.

charles_young921mo ago

@bennett.harper nailed it with that hate speech vs dumb stuff line. The pineapple pizza thing is just silly, but real pattern here is admin always caves once media pressure flips. Those quick reversals usually happen when the organizers realize the backlash is worse on both sides than just letting the guy talk. It's basically them picking whichever option makes them look less bad that week. Usually ends up being a wash for everyone involved.