Wesleyan president slams Harvard's 'neutrality' on political issues

CNN podcast host Audie Cornish spoke with the president of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth. He shared his message for students after the protests that happened on college campuses this past spring, and weighed in on whether or not universities should take a neutral political stance.

[stevestoll]

As a university Dean, president or leader (call it what you may) their duty is to provide safe, clean, stimulating environment for young adults. That can't be done if they openly support one side or another in politics.

[BushidoXBrown]

American colleges and universities should not be investing in foreign assets at all

[ppeterson]

Why are SCHOOLS investing in military assets for foreign countries?

[Jayzilla-jrfr]

This is the generation that ate Tide Pods. Our future looks bright.

[lukeelgon]

It's shocking to see interviewers and commentators refer to the campus demonstrations this past Spring as "major disturbances". I was at university during the height of the Antiwar demonstrations of the late 60s, early 70s. We saw students shot dead by riot police on campus. 1300 campuses saw demos. 500 colleges were closed for varying periods. 500, 000 demonstrators attended a single march in DC. This past Spring was a squeak against the roar of dying kids and moms in Israel and Palestine.

[Deangirleva]

People have the right to their political beliefs but they do not have the right to force their beliefs on others! People do not have the right to intimidate people who share beliefs that they find offensive!

[Armondahad]

Wow, this is great content. I strongly disagree with Roth about the way he frames the situation and his thinking that divestment isn't impactful, but this is a refreshingly thoughtful discussion about how to handle these issues. Nice to see a CNN video that isn't just pundits or politicians giving their "analysis" of a news story that is clearly just an extremely poorly disguised political jab and gives me zero meaningful information. Props to Audie Cornish.

[gab]

Why does a school have to have certain political agenda aren't they there to teach people?

[juju]

Why does he keep defending the actual investments? Oh, of course.

[femiotitoju]

I like interviews like this. 2 obviously reasonable people, intellectually honest and speaking to each other respectfully.

Don’t agree with him 100, but I understand and appreciate his thought process

[Coinmash]

great discussion. i don't say that about CNN very often

[nicksmile]

Just because you're educated doesn't mean you're intelligent.
~~~B Copijn

[EricAllen]

Divestment is one of the most powerful movements one can force a publicly/privately funded institutions. Might have meney tided to this apartheid... Anti-Zionism & antisemitism are different.

[simonkapadia]

Reasonable people can disagree is invariably a false parity argument, especially when made by those who actually hold the power about why they intend to ignore those who don't. Reasonable people don't disagree, they evaluate the evidence and reasoning and ultimately come to agreement. That's the nature of reason.

Agreeing to disagree is always just a way to shut down an argument, rather than engage in it.

There's no right to an opinion, there's merely no way to prevent people from having them. A right is an obligation on some definite person, class of people, or institution which exists in order to ensure something. It might be a duty on all members of a society not to unlawfully kill others, it might be a duty on government not to unlawfully prevent speech. There is no duty on anyone to respect someone else's view, it's simply impossible for anyone to prevent anyone else from holding one.

You can't stop people from disagreeing with you. But nor is it the case that disagreeing makes views more legitimate.

There are two reasons to shut down an argument: Because noone is willing to concede anything, i.e. unreasonable people can disagree. Or because you have the power and refuse to concede.

The latter position has generally been the one held by universities.

[jvb]

Video format is way better than audio format for The Assignment podcast.

[JamesB]

Free speech in America ends where criticism of Israel begins.

[RuiR.]

Listen to an American university student speak for 15m and embrace the voice of ignorance

[kevdaag]

"I think i was probably writing about divestment. ". WTF? He sounded pretty reasonable there, but now he thinks that universities should have contributed to invest in South Africa in the eighties?!? Doesn't he remember that the apartheid ended? And that international pressure, like divestment, helped?
Does he think his university should invest in cigarettes, pornhub, and weapons manufacturing? Honestly, wtf?

[kevinjenner]

“How Israel Made AIPAC:The Most Harmful Foreign Influence Operation in America”. By Grant F Smith

[FriedBananas]

That guy said that "kids in college should hear things you didn't expect to hear", that's one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Kids in college should hear cogent effective arguments for both, perspectives they agree with *AND* perspectives they disagree with. If the bar is hearing things they didn't expect to hear, then you end up with insane things like students protesting in favor of beliefs systems that argue for the literal physical annihilation of any human being that lives the lifestyle that those very students live.