The problem with the vice-chancellor’s ‘free speech’ column
In a column that appeared in The Post on 23 February, Victoria University of Wellington Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith criticizes the coalition's commitment to have universities adopt a free speech policy. Smith notes that ACT Party leader david seymour ‘has previously criticised universities for declining to host certain speakers and argued the institutions should lose funding if they don't “protect free speech.”' The vice-chancellor then states that ‘one inference of all this is that anyone who wants to speak on campus should be able to do so.' But it wouldn't actually be valid to infer from Seymour's criticisms of recent deplatformings at New Zealand universities that he thinks that ‘anyone who wants to speak on campus should be able to do so.' You can, of course, think that Vice-Chancellor Jan Thomas was wrong to prevent Don Brash from speaking to a student politics club in August 2018 (for example) and at the same time recognize that random people can't simply turn up at a university without an invitation and expect to get a hearing. Read more
