アメリカの大学を代表する屈指のカリフォルニア州立大学、バークレー校。アメリカの公立大学の中ではＵＣＬＡを超えるトップランキング校である。世界が注目する大学の学長ともなれば、必ず憲法とかフリースピーチとか民主主義のコアを把握した人物でないとままならない。そういうことが一流のマスコミ紙のインタビューでの会話の中心になることに注目して欲しいものだ。今の民間会社ですら社会的責任が問われるように、高等教育機関の大学にあってもその民主主義の擁護者としての社会的責任は逃れられない。そんな例がココにある。民主主義に対して「見ざる聞かざる言わざる」の高崎山の三猿を代表する高経大は「大学としての存在」価値すらままならないといって良いのである。
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California Today: Berkeley’s New Chancellor and a ‘Free Speech Year’
AUG. 22, 2017 CALIFORNIA TODAY The New York Times.
Photo＝Carol Christ, the U.C. Berkeley chancellor, is taking over at a time of intense debate over free speech principles. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times
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A swirl of problems awaited U.C. Berkeley’s new chancellor, Carol Christ, as she assumed the top job at California’s flagship public university this summer.
The campus is contending with a student housing shortage, a budget crunch and the fallout from a series of sexual harassment scandals.
Then there is the issue that’s been attracting national attention: Whether conservative speakers have become unwelcome at Berkeley, a university regarded as a birthplace of the free speech movement.
In an interview, Dr. Christ, 73, indicated that she would confront that question head-on.
She announced a “free speech year” to include, among other events, a series of debates titled “Point Counterpoint” that would feature speakers with sharply divergent views.
“What we’re trying to do is really give the community as many different kinds of opportunities to think carefully about free speech,” she said.
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Berkeley has been shadowed by doubts over its commitment to freedom of expression since February, when a planned speech on campus by the far right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled in the wake of violent protests.
In the months that followed, more debates flared over invited speakers ― including the conservative writers Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro.
Dr. Christ, a scholar of Victorian literature and former president of Smith College, took over for the former Berkeley chancellor, Nicholas B. Dirks, in July.
She said she was looking carefully at how to improve the security around contested events on campus, a concern amplified this month by the deadly protests in Charlottesville, Va.
Asked if Mr. Yiannopoulos ― who has railed against Muslims, immigrants and transgender people ― was welcome at Berkeley, Dr. Christ cited the Constitution.
“Lots of speech that I would find abhorrent, noxious, hateful, bigoted is protected,” she said.
Whether Berkeley can guarantee that right without anyone getting hurt may be tested soon.
Mr. Yiannopoulos has said he will hold a four-day “free speech” event in September on Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza.
This time, he vowed in a Facebook post, he will “bring an army if I have to.”
