At a recent speech by Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., at the University of California at Irvine “raucous protesters” disrupted the ambassador prompting the arrests of 11 students and a whole lot of ill will.
The first issue is the unacceptable behavior of the students. Disrupting anybody’s speech is just plain rude and completely unbecoming of students at a university such as UCI. At a community college, a high school or at any other venue, this kind of behavior could be expected, but not at a so-called top tier university. I have seen orderly protests, which include picketing outside the venue and asking intelligent, pointed questions that get the point across. But, screaming at the speaker during speech? Unacceptable! If this is the kind of students who attend UCI, the institution might as well be called the Community College of California at Irvine.
The second issue is the stupid lecture by the faculty member trying to shame the students into behaving properly. Hey, if they could be shamed at all, they wouldn’t be behaving like this. These protesters are hardly civilized individuals – they can’t be swayed by speeches. A better option would be to quietly walk them out while ignoring the whole matter. But, making those stupid statements over and over again only show the person’s idiocy. This guy hardly deserves tenure.
Thirdly, towards the end (at 5:23 into the video), we can observe a professor telling his students how they should either withdraw from his class or expect to fail their examinations. Excuse me? Behavior outside class, however unacceptable, cannot and should not determine how a student performs in class. The expression of political opinions, again however inappropriate, should never be a metric in examination results. This guy, as above, does not deserve tenure.
Finally, all of the protests, inside or out, were political expressions – free speech protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment. Arresting anybody for shouting slogans is illegal. The arrest of students is even worse, especially when the university administration is involved in the charges. Free speech on the UCI campus is highly restricted as it is. This incident doesn’t do anything to improve the university’s tarnished reputation.
UCI will never be a great university.
#1 by oscar li on March 28th, 2010
its just the muslims lol
the asians make it a good school
#2 by observer on March 29th, 2010
It’s not just the students, I am talking about. How about the faculty members making stupid comments and failing students for political free speech? If I were among those students, I would file an ethics complaint (and maybe a lawsuit) against the professor doling out Fs without even reading my paper/examination.