Ivy League university moves to prioritize 'free expression' months after students heckled conservative pundit

Cornell University will announce plans to feature "free expression and academic freedom" as its theme for the 2023-2024 academic year on Monday, dealing another blow to censorship on college campuses.

The preliminary announcement came Friday, months after students heckled conservative speaker Ann Coulter, a Cornell alumna, at a November 2022 event by blasting music, blowing whistles and more, the university's newspaper, The Cornell Review, reported at the time.

Cornell President Martha E. Pollack is expected to announce the theme, encouraging students to "engage with these ideas, and in civil discourse about them, through a wide range of scholarly and creative events and activities, from lectures to community book reads to artistic exhibitions and performances," according to Friday's announcement.

Pollack called the initiative "critical," per the report, arguing that the university's must focus on its mission to "think deeply about freedom of expression and the challenges that result from assaults on it, which today come from both ends of the political spectrum."

"Learning from difference, learning to engage with difference and learning to communicate across difference are key parts of a Cornell education. Free expression and academic freedom are the bedrock not just of the university, but of democracy," she said.

The university will reportedly launch a website dedicated to the theme this fall, detailing the corresponding goals and events aimed at furthering free expression and academic freedom on its multiple campuses.

"Early planning anticipates reading groups on free expression, debates with invited speakers modeling respectful dialogue, and exhibitions that may span art, film and fashion," the announcement reads, continuing later with, "the programming aims to offer students, faculty and staff opportunities to further develop the fluency and skills necessary for democratic participation, such as active listening, leading controversial discussions, leading effective advocacy and managing responses to controversial interactions."

The announcement also highlights the themes as "core parts" of the institution's "identity" and "founding." Cornell also adopted "free and open inquiry and expression – even of ideas some may consider wrong or offensive" in its 2019 outline of core values and, according to the release from Friday, adopted a policy statement two years later, affirming a free speech commitment.

The announcement comes after Pollack struck down a Student Assembly resolution to precede potentially offensive or triggering class discussions with trigger warnings earlier this month, citing the move "would infringe on our core commitment to academic freedom and freedom of inquiry" in conflict with the institution's goals.

Pollack, in a joint rejection with provost Michael I. Kotlikoff, said the resolution would potentially curb free speech by restricting faculty members' "fundamental right" to determine what curriculum to teach.

Pollack also urged the importance of free speech on campus after the Coulter incident in November, urging students to listen to as many perspectives as they can, including those they disagree with.

"Don’t avoid people whose viewpoints you think are wrong. Don’t try to shout them down. Hear them out. Ask them questions. Put in the effort to understand their point of view," she said, according to The Cornell Review.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/ivy-league-university-prioritize-free-expression-students-heckled-conservative-pundit

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Female teacher at £20,000-a-year British girls' school is forced to apologise to pupils for saying 'Good afternoon, girls'

A teacher claims she was left 'humiliated' after being ordered to apologise to 11-year-olds at a private girls' school – for calling them girls.

Bosses at the £20,000-a-year school told the woman to deliver the mea culpa after her class complained that she had said 'good afternoon, girls' at the start of a lesson, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

After being told by the pupils that 'not everyone here identifies as female', she arrived in class the following day to find they had pointedly written their names and pronouns on the board, including one who used they/them.

They also held a lunchtime protest after she refused to acknowledge their demands.

Last night, the philosophy and religious education teacher spoke of her belief that she was 'managed out' by senior staff at the prestigious institution, which is part of the independent Girls' Day School Trust, but only after she was forced to publicly apologise.

The woman, who gave evidence last week to an ongoing review into child and adolescent gender dysphoria care, led by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, said the problems began in May 2021 after some Year 7 students complained when she greeted the class with 'good afternoon, girls.'

After being told that not everyone identified as female, one pupil stood up and challenged her to 'acknowledge' their pronouns.

But the teacher, who has requested anonymity to protect the pupils, replied that if their pronouns differed from their biological sex, she would need to involve parents.

The teacher then said she sought guidance from the head of year about what to do if a pupil was experiencing gender dysphoria – a term used to describe a mismatch between biological sex and gender.

But her superior allegedly told her she had no knowledge of the terminology or whether any communications had been had with parents on the issue.

The students then held a lunchtime protest against the teacher – and she said senior staff appeared to side with them. 'I was told that they made placards with slogans on such as 'Trans lives matter',' she said.

'Before the end of the week I was in some sort of disciplinary process and the head of year was telling me I had to apologise to the girls.'

The teacher then described how she was accompanied by the head of year, who addressed the pupils while she stood to one side.

She said: 'She spoke to the children on my behalf saying no one here would want to hurt you and you're all really loved by us.

'She then worded the apology in terms of, 'I am sorry you're upset and we didn't mean to offend. I'm sorry you felt bad.' But it was all pretty humiliating and embarrassing.'

The teacher said the problems started less than a week after the sixth form's 'diversity and inclusion' prefects delivered an assembly on gender and pronouns.

During the session, the 17- and 18-year-olds showed a video discussing gender identities and sex being assigned at birth.

The tutor believes that as a result of her refusal to capitulate to her students' gender demands she was 'managed out'.

She said the head teacher rejected her application to remain at the school after her one-term contract came to an end.

The Girls' Day School Trust, a group of 25 schools and academies, attracted attention in January 2022 after it controversially updated its gender identity policy to ban applications from students who are legally male but identify as trans or non-binary.

It defended the move, saying that it was necessary to protect its schools' single sex status.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11976891/Female-teacher-forced-apologise-saying-Good-afternoon-girls.html

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Muslims Turning the Tide in the School Culture Wars

In a slap to Muslim girls at Stuyvesant High School, the school is cancelling single-sex swim lessons, even though swim instruction is required to graduate. That forces the girls to choose between preserving their modesty and getting a diploma.

Count on Muslim families to fight back and likely prevail. Nationwide, Muslims are taking up the battle in schools to protect traditional religious values, including modesty.

Move over, Roman Catholics, evangelical Christians and conservative Jews. Reinforcements have arrived, and they're turning the tide.

Even in the Ivy League. After weeks of protests by female Muslim students, Yale University is switching its campus housing policy for the coming academic year to offer single-gender dorms and bathrooms.

From Michigan to Virginia, Muslim parents are showing up at local school board meetings to oppose graphic sex education and gender fluidity indoctrination. Their engagement is impacting politics. More Muslims are voting Republican, concluding that the Democratic Party is trampling Islamist values.

In Dearborn, Michigan, left-wing Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib opposed the Muslim parents in her district protesting sexually explicit materials in school.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues its lurch to the extreme left. President Joe Biden's Department of Education announced double-barreled rule changes last week, one favoring transgender athletes in elementary and middle school, and the other revoking a Trump-era commitment by the department to protect religious clubs and associations on college campuses. Flipping the bird to people of faith twice in a single week.

Sexual modesty is a core value in Islam. Muslims observe a dress code and guard against physical contact between sexes once students reach adolescence.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects an employee's right to practice religion in the workplace, but there is no comparable statutory protection for students. Muslims are waging the battle one campus demonstration and school board meeting at a time, often winning.

Muslims are powerful at Yale. In 2021, undergrads elected a Muslim woman to be student body president. And on March 10, Yale acceded to demands from the Muslim Student Association, Orthodox Jews at Yale and other religious groups to provide single-sex campus housing. Muslim women students had protested that with men in the bathroom, they couldn't even remove their hijab.

Modesty is the issue at Stuyvesant High School, too. Brian Moran, assistant principal of physical education, told the student newspaper that the girls' single-sex swim classes clashed with other scheduling priorities. He made it sound like a mere scheduling inconvenience was justification enough for the change, and told the girls to wear full-body burkinis. Sorry, but those still cling to the body when wet.

New York City's Board of Education website promises trans students "alternative arrangements" for anyone with "a need or desire for increased privacy." Why should Muslim students get less? One in every 10 students in the city's school system is Muslim.

Last September, Muslim women at Syracuse University waged a battle for swim time without men in the college pool and won a concession that starts next fall.

In Utah, the Muslim Civic League worked with the Sikh and Jewish communities to pass a state law in February allowing school athletes to wear turbans, hijabs and modest pants and tops in competition instead of the regulation form fitting uniforms.

Luna Banuri, the league's executive director, said: "All faiths have modesty standards. We believe this affects multiple communities." Maryland and Illinois recently passed similar laws.

In Bethel, Ohio, a coalition of Muslim and Christian parents are suing to preserve single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms and halt a rule change that would allow biological boys to use the girls' facilities.

Most Muslims still vote Democratic, but the shift is beginning. According to a Wall Street Journal exit poll, 28% voted Republican in the 2022 midterms, a double-digit increase over the 2018 midterms.

Republicans are gaining ground as more Muslims conclude the Democratic Party doesn't show regard for Islamic values.

Tell educators to respect families with faith-based values instead of shunning them.

https://townhall.com/columnists/betsymccaughey/2023/04/12/muslims-turning-the-tide-in-the-school-culture-wars-n2621816

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