University’s priorities should be education, not protest

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/05/2024 (869 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Thursday afternoon, May 9, the University of Manitoba’s Science Rendezvous sent out an urgent email. This email announced the last-minute cancellation of its award-winning K-12 science education event, the largest of its kind in Canada, scheduled for May 11. Why? The university learned that a protest group planned to use campus on Saturday. The protest might impact campus access and make parking difficult. Organizers called off the event.

This affects Manitobans. First, we lose a vital learning opportunity for thousands of K-12 students and their families, who attend this yearly event.

My children had a great learning experience at this event on campus in the past. It also offered undergraduates a chance to make science exciting for young learners. This volunteer opportunity results in an experiential learning credit for some, and a participation certificate for others. While the organizers offered to compensate students for the cancelled volunteer opportunity, undergraduates lost a hands-on learning experience.

More broadly, Manitobans need all the science education we can get. We can’t lose any chance to motivate kids or to educate undergraduates to create future science professionals. Every student who goes to this event might be inspired to become future researchers, applied scientists, medical professionals, engineers and inventors.

Cancellations like this are happening all over North America and Europe.

Although my grad student days are behind me, I still subscribe to an academic listserv. Over the last few weeks, cancellations for long-awaited lectures rolled into my inbox. Columbia University and UCLA regretfully cancelled events.

Most of these announcements didn’t spell out why, but I knew from social media, news and academic contacts that many institutions cancelled classes altogether or reverted to a remote format. University final exams went remote or were cancelled. At several universities, like USC, commencement was cancelled. At other institutions, like the University of Michigan, protesters disrupted commencement events. As the University of Michigan removed protesters, friends, family and graduates chanted back, apparently saying things like “USA, USA.”

If universities are for teaching, learning, research and service, as many state in their mission statements, these disruptions affect the goals of academic institutions. Our society needs professionals with access to higher-level education.

This isn’t just an individual pursuit of knowledge, but part of what drives our economies. If universities cannot adequately turn out professionals who fulfill crucial roles in Manitoba, society disintegrates — we’re in trouble. Without creating new civil engineers, family doctors and teachers, we become a society without adequate bridges or roads, access to health care or education.

Some argue universities have always been the right place for political debate and free speech of all kinds. While this is often the case, usually those ‘great dialogues’ happened in classrooms. Students and intellectuals used critical analysis and rational debate to come to new understanding. While professors use the Socratic method to draw their students towards exciting levels of synthesis, they use highly structured systems. This questioning approach has worked for thousands of years.

When emotions run high, vandalism and potential violence lurk, there is no open dialogue with opposing viewpoints. If protesters occupy university buildings, there is no even-handed learning happening. Groups that forbid individual protesters from speaking to media or to those outside of the encampments doesn’t create rational debate.

Cornell University took an interesting approach to their campus activism this year. This year’s theme on campus, planned long in advance, revolved around open freedom of expression.

Yet when a student issued violent antisemitic threats, the administration contacted the FBI immediately. The student was arrested and removed from campus. When protesters refused to cede the Arts Quad after their actual activities differed from what was proposed on their permit applications, the Cornell administration told them to move to a less disruptive location on campus. If they didn’t, the protesters would face suspension and/or physical removal. Actions have consequences. At Cornell, with freedom comes responsibility.

Cornell’s ‘content-neutral’ approach to protest indicated that it didn’t matter what kind of campus activism happened. With the right permits and approvals, it could go forward. Violate the rules? Lose the right to protest.

For hundreds of years, western (Christian) universities have provided our cultures with new learning, as well as critical thinking, logic and analysis. Ancient institutions of higher learning, such as Egypt’s (Muslim) Al-Azhar University, have existed for even longer. If Manitoba wants local academic institutions to flourish, inspiring Manitoba’s future leaders, learning, teaching and research should be paramount. Yes, even K-12 outreach events, such as Science Rendezvous, should be the priority.

Protest rallies shouldn’t disrupt our universities’ primary functions, no matter their content. Free expression must go hand in hand with critical analysis skills — skills best acquired via higher education. Protest if you must, it’s your right, but do it someplace else. Stop interfering with Manitobans’ right to learn.

Joanne Seiff is a Winnipeg writer and author.