A Harvard professor warned Thursday that service members are reluctant to reveal their military status to their classmates, bolstering the institution’s “abysmal” free-speech rating recently released by a Harvard nonprofit. First Amendment.
“I’ve had military veterans enrolled here at Harvard University tell me they think it’s best if they don’t tell their classmates or their professors first that they’re in the military,” Kit Parker, a professor of bioengineering, said. “Fox & Friends First.”
“Obviously, it is impacting the way we design and deliver courses to our students. I think ultimately it’s up to the faculty member how much risk they want to take when they teach a course or make a public statement.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a group that supports free speech and religious liberty, recently gave Harvard an “abysmal” speech climate rating with, in the group’s words, scoring “generously ” of 0.00.
“[The] The actual score is -10.69,” FIRE said.
Parker, meanwhile, said some students worry about talking in class and feeling the wrath of others later on social media, adding that despite the ranking, conditions at the university “ultimately support the freedom of expression or academic freedom” and depends on the teaching staff. members decide if they want to take the risk of exercising that freedom.
Kit Parker, a professor of bioengineering at Harvard, says he has students hide their military service to avoid backlash from their classmates. foxnews
“Academic freedom is one of the most important values supporting the pursuit of excellence. If you think about colleges, the goal here isn’t really a state of achievement when you go to college, as indicated by a diploma. It’s about a state of mind that is demonstrated by an openness to new ideas and their supporting arguments,” said Parker, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who served in Afghanistan.
“And this is important because it takes civil debate and rigorous study for anyone, any student, to go from being a mere consumer of ideas to being a producer or a true creator of ideas, so it is vitally important” .
However, the issue of free speech is notoriously widespread beyond Harvard.
According to the FIRE report, more than half of college students (56%) worried that their reputations could be damaged because someone misinterpreted what they said or did. More than a quarter (26%) reported that they feel pressured to avoid discussing controversial topics in their classes” and “twenty percent reported that they often self-censor”.
Harvard was recently named the worst university for free speech. fake images
“It all comes down to leadership. It all comes down to the president,” Parker said of the campus climate. Now that Harvard has recently acquired a new president, he said he has “a lot of hope” for the future.
“If you take a look at a university or college, you will see that they have an academic freedom problem. They most likely have a leadership problem, and that’s not the only problem on that campus,” he added.
At the bottom of the FIRE list, along with Harvard, were the University of Pennsylvania, the University of South Carolina, Georgetown University and Fordham University.
Michigan Technological University, Auburn University, the University of New Hampshire, Oregon State University and Florida State University are in the top five.
Fox News reached out to Harvard for comment on the FIRE study’s findings but did not receive a response.
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