Girls are more likely to block free speech at university

Girls are more likely to block free speech at university, by Megan Davies. A recent study in the UK found that:

  • Female students are more likely to support a ban on free speech in universities.
  • Female students would be more inclined to ban speakers with “offensive” views on campus.
  • 55 per cent of the women  think that universities should be ‘safe spaces’, compared to 39 per cent of men.
  • 76 per cent of students would support a ban on speakers who offended them.
  • 45 per cent of women and 29 per cent of men support a refusal by student unions to sell tabloid newspapers.
  • 27 per cent thought that UKIP speakers should not be invited to universities to address academics.
  • 51 per cent of the men thought that students societies today are “overly sensitive”, compared to 36 per cent of women.

Those that were questioned have been described as the “snowflake generation”, suggesting that do not nurture a liberal mindset that is open to ideas with which they don’t agree. The mindset has been described as “illiberal”.

40% of Millennials OK with limiting speech offensive to minorities, by Jacob Poushter.

American Millennials are far more likely than older generations to say the government should be able to prevent people from saying offensive statements about minority groups, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey data on free speech and media across the globe.

Four-in-ten Millennials say the government should be able to prevent people publicly making statements that are offensive to minority groups, while 58% said such speech is OK … only around a quarter of Gen Xers (27%) and Boomers (24%) and roughly one-in-ten Silents (12%) say the government should be able to prevent such speech. …

Overall, our global survey found that a majority of Americans say that people should be able to say offensive things about minority groups publicly. Two-thirds of Americans say this, compared with a median of 35% among the 38 nations we polled.

In the U.S., our findings also show a racial divide on this question, with non-whites more likely (38%) to support government prevention of such speech than non-Hispanic whites (23%).

Nearly twice as many Democrats say the government should be able to stop speech against minorities (35%) compared with Republicans (18%).

The crackpot campus that’s banned sugar, hats and rugby, by Greg Hurst.

First they came for the bags of sugar, removing them from the campus shop. Then they blocked Six Nations rugby matches from being screened in the student union bar. After that coffee was targeted: Starbucks and Nestlé were subject to campus boycotts. Sombreros were next; handing out the hats at a freshers’ fair was deemed cultural appropriation.

They even tried to ban Ukip after students said that inviting its candidate on to the campus would make them feel less safe and secure. …

A university ranking based on free speech, compiled by Spiked, an online magazine, gave the University of East Anglia its worst rating because of the union’s support for an academic boycott of Israel and ban of stereotyping jokes and offensive leaflets.

This is the university the leads the UK’s climate research, at the center of the 2009 Climategate scandal.