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On February 18, 2010 UC President Mark Yudof spoke out against “Intolerance on Campus.” He referred to the incidents at UC Irvine where a group of students interrupted a speech given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren and at UC San Diego where students held a racist, ghetto-themed party. One day after Yudof condemned the events at Irvine and San Diego, a swastika was found on the UC Davis campus. More incidents of incivility soon followed at UCD and UCSD in what can be characterized as a year of hate across the UC.
Each act of incivility committed on the three campuses raises questions of freedom of speech, campus community, and discrimination. The university campus has a delicate balance to maintain between protecting student’s freedom of speech and also ensuring students feel safe and dignified on campus.
But which of these incidents are hate crimes, acts of incivility, or simply expressions of freedom of speech? Should we place interrupting a guest speaker in the same category as defacing a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender resource center with homophobic graffiti? How does the nature of each incident determine the type of response from each individual campus? What happens when one student’s freedom of speech threatens another student’s right to feel safe and respected?
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