I agree with your general claim here, that college students are adults and should be treated accordingly. I'm less confident of the particular application. On your thought experiment, while I might agree that we would call the cops on random 18-22-year-olds, I would be less likely to agree to calling them on 30-year-old graduate students – or on faculty. The right argument for not calling the cops is that campus community issues should be handled in-house in general, especially in cases where speech is involved, since the exchange of ideas is so important to academic community. The wrong argument is that the students are "just kids".
I'm more interested in the general point than in the specifics, and as it relates to calling the cops, my only real commitment is that "they're just kids" is a bad reason not to call the cops. So I think we're in broad agreement. I'll just push back slightly on your suggestion that the protests are about an "exchange of ideas." To a large extent, these are social events. Students are out protesting because their friends are. And to the extent that there's a point to the protests, it's not about an exchange of ides. The protesters are demanding that the administration adopt a variety of BDS policies which the administration is 100% not interested in doing. Chanting and handing out literature to express your views about Gaza and educate others is different from setting up a semi-permanent encampment to force changes in university policy. Both things are going on at the protests. But to the extent that students are engaged in the latter, involving the police (as a last measure) seems appropriate.
I agree completely with the core statement. There shouldn't be different standards of treatment for 18–22-year-olds based on whether they attend college or pursue other paths. However, it seems to me that the occasional slip of the tongue is understandable: It's difficult not to notice–or pity–the moral vulnerability and infantile confusion of the protesters. It often makes one feel that eventually someone should show them a map of the Middle East or explain to them that "Queers for Palestine" is an Easter bunny.
I'm 77 and was in an odd "lefty" high school and college (in DC) during "the 60s," and finished grad school at U of I in 1974. I think that the period began to change how many people in colleges and universities began to think about college ed. At Hawthorne High (long-gone) protesting was part of the curriculum. Many faculty in college and grad school were protestors, too. The original prof who was supposed to direct my dissertation was famous fo, "breaking the glass of the ruling class!" (Kuhn 1962!!!!!!!!) during demonstrations. (At U of I, they literally glued rocks to the ground to keep them from being thrown). These days ("long march thru the institutions" and all that) I think that many admins and faculty see protesting and effecting social justice as PART of college, even its essence, not a distraction or disturbance. The revolutionary attitude of the Adorno/Gramsci types was reinforced (much against his intent) by Kuhn's book (me, 1995; 2024, forthcoming). I read recently that Kuhn was floored by a student thanking him for "telling us about paradigms so we can eliminate them." I bet she's one of the profs arrested in the demos. PS, I subscribed to your substack b/c Hume is my favorite philosopher.
I agree with your general claim here, that college students are adults and should be treated accordingly. I'm less confident of the particular application. On your thought experiment, while I might agree that we would call the cops on random 18-22-year-olds, I would be less likely to agree to calling them on 30-year-old graduate students – or on faculty. The right argument for not calling the cops is that campus community issues should be handled in-house in general, especially in cases where speech is involved, since the exchange of ideas is so important to academic community. The wrong argument is that the students are "just kids".
I'm more interested in the general point than in the specifics, and as it relates to calling the cops, my only real commitment is that "they're just kids" is a bad reason not to call the cops. So I think we're in broad agreement. I'll just push back slightly on your suggestion that the protests are about an "exchange of ideas." To a large extent, these are social events. Students are out protesting because their friends are. And to the extent that there's a point to the protests, it's not about an exchange of ides. The protesters are demanding that the administration adopt a variety of BDS policies which the administration is 100% not interested in doing. Chanting and handing out literature to express your views about Gaza and educate others is different from setting up a semi-permanent encampment to force changes in university policy. Both things are going on at the protests. But to the extent that students are engaged in the latter, involving the police (as a last measure) seems appropriate.
I agree completely with the core statement. There shouldn't be different standards of treatment for 18–22-year-olds based on whether they attend college or pursue other paths. However, it seems to me that the occasional slip of the tongue is understandable: It's difficult not to notice–or pity–the moral vulnerability and infantile confusion of the protesters. It often makes one feel that eventually someone should show them a map of the Middle East or explain to them that "Queers for Palestine" is an Easter bunny.
I'm 77 and was in an odd "lefty" high school and college (in DC) during "the 60s," and finished grad school at U of I in 1974. I think that the period began to change how many people in colleges and universities began to think about college ed. At Hawthorne High (long-gone) protesting was part of the curriculum. Many faculty in college and grad school were protestors, too. The original prof who was supposed to direct my dissertation was famous fo, "breaking the glass of the ruling class!" (Kuhn 1962!!!!!!!!) during demonstrations. (At U of I, they literally glued rocks to the ground to keep them from being thrown). These days ("long march thru the institutions" and all that) I think that many admins and faculty see protesting and effecting social justice as PART of college, even its essence, not a distraction or disturbance. The revolutionary attitude of the Adorno/Gramsci types was reinforced (much against his intent) by Kuhn's book (me, 1995; 2024, forthcoming). I read recently that Kuhn was floored by a student thanking him for "telling us about paradigms so we can eliminate them." I bet she's one of the profs arrested in the demos. PS, I subscribed to your substack b/c Hume is my favorite philosopher.