Andrew Breitbart coined the maxim that “politics is downstream from culture”. If you want to see the future of left-wing politics, you only need look at the culture on university campuses.
It doesn’t look good.
How much longer can university leaders ignore the accelerating rhythm to raids on free speech at Australian universities? Today, the most brazen opponents of free speech within universities are those who control student unions.
It’s hardly surprising that the political left screamed blue murder when the Howard government passed its Voluntary Student Unionism bill – or that the Gillard government rushed to overturn it. Student unionism is a cash-cow for aspiring leftist politicians, where students are forced to fork out hundreds of dollars every year – most of which goes straight into the pockets of student associations wholly run by the left.
And they’re making sure it stays that way by shutting down anyone who might challenge their privilege.
On Tuesday afternoon, the student association at Melbourne’s Monash University, which runs Orientation Week stalls, BBQs and other events aimed at offering students “a diverse introduction to Monash”, rejected an application from Generation Liberty to be part of the program’s activities.
Generation Liberty is a program run by the Institute of Public Affairs for young Australians, including university students, introducing them to ideas, arguments, and perspectives that they may have missed at school or university. The program is a big hit; its growth, especially over the past 12 months, points to a real hunger for knowledge not addressed by schools and universities.
In an email, events officer Michele Fredregill from the Monash Student Association told fellow Monash student Luca Rossi, a Generation Liberty co-ordinator at the university: “We have carefully reviewed your booking request and discussed it internally. Regretfully we must decline your booking application on the basis of our terms and conditions. Generation Liberty’s positions on issues such as climate change do not align with MSA’s.”
In Victoria, where Monash (my alma mater, I’m ashamed to admit) is located, a prima facie case can be made that this violates the state’s Equal Opportunity Act 2010: “In Victoria it is against the law for someone to discriminate against you because of your political beliefs or activities, or what people think these might be”.
Student unions are baying campus censors, too. And it takes only a handful of students who control events such as Market Week at QUT and O-Week at Monash to undermine intellectual diversity for the rest of the student population. IPA research compiled last year revealed that 59 per cent of students believe they are sometimes prevented from voicing their opinions on controversial issues by other students.
This mirrors my anecdotal experience. Many students have told me that they don’t dare state their real opinions, because they know full well that they will be shouted down by other students and, more disgustingly, marked down by lecturers.
But if anyone is expecting university administrators to step up and force left-wing student associations to actually obey the law, they’re sadly mistaken.
It is a stark failure of logic and leadership when VCs try to dodge responsibility by saying student unions are “independent” from university administration[..]Who then, if not university administrators, will hold these student censors to account?
It is not unreasonable for VCs, acting on behalf of all students, to require students within student unions or guilds to commit, in practice, to freedom of expression, open debate and intellectual diversity. That starts with O-Week activities.
Instead, there is a failure of accountability right up and down the line.
Universities are failing students, the wider community, and undermining their raison d’être, at every turn. Students are being short-changed, bullied and oppressed. The community is being ripped off to the tune of $30 billion a year by what now amounts to little more than left-wing indoctrination camps and middle-management job creation schemes. Universities are betraying the Western intellectual tradition they are supposed to uphold.
When I recently suggested bulldozing the universities, I was half-joking. Now, it’s a quarter-joke, at best.
Fire up the D9s, fellas. There’s work to do.
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