To the Editor:
Be outraged with the Herald and University, not the writer.
The Herald apologized for publishing a recent controversial column. Worse still, The Herald removed the article from its website. The apology and removal declared that there is a limit to which ideas are acceptable for discussion. As the foremost medium for discussion on campus, The Herald should be the first to defend controversial columns.
I, too, wrote a column in The Herald several years ago that sparked campus-wide outrage. The Herald did not remove the column and allowed for subsequent rebuttal columns and a follow-up column of mine. This allowed for a healthy debate. The administration never got involved, communicating that students are not children who need to be sheltered from scary ideas.
This time is different. The administration has gotten involved and has only compounded the damage. In an attempt to moderate the situation, several administrators, including President Christina Paxson P’19, wrote a letter to students.
Controversial speech does not need moderation. Moderation is only steps away from speech codes on campus. If the administration had to publish anything, it should have requested that The Herald and others learn that a university is about ideas, including controversial ones. Instead the letter requested that Herald staff members “take this opportunity to learn more, and also in greater depth, about the historical and current realities of race and inequity.” The Herald does not need to learn about race. The Herald and administration need to learn about backbone.
Oliver Hudson ’14
Former Herald opinions columnist
