Brandeis Professor Silences Dissent

Was there silencing of dissent at Brandeis University? According to Brandeis newspaper, The Justice, Professor Shulamit Reinharz, Jacob Potofsky Professor of Sociology, and the wife of a trustee whom interviewees have declined to identify asked several students and faculty to remove their “Save the Rose” pins at the Rose reopening on October 28, 2009.  Under a confidentiality agreement, the parties attended a confidential meeting last Thursday to try and resolve the situation.

According to The Justice,

Beccah Ulm ’11, a Fine Arts UDR who attended the meeting, said that she did not believe the discussions at the meeting provided concrete resolutions for the issues that that occurred at the opening. Ulm said she believed what occurred was essentially a violation of free speech.

It’s one thing to enforce one’s legal rights, as Brandeis is currently doing in regard to the selling of its art collection and the transformation of the Rose Art Museum into an educational center. However, the silencing of speech, whether it be of its student body or staff, reads only as a desparate attempt by those in and with power to crush any dissenting views and opinions.  Although private colleges are not bound by the First Amendment and therefore are not obligated to provide freedom of speech, allowing room for dissent would help Brandeis University’s position and argument that it seeks only to further higher learning and open discussion.

More from The Justice here.

Tags: brandeis university, buttons, Free Speech, rose art museum