Haidt: US university campuses are âexplodingâ
Social psychologist says universities have failed to enforce boundaries for behaviour
The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has told the ±«Óătv that American university campuses âare explodingâ because administrations have ânever made clear boundariesâ on what was acceptable student behaviour. Talking about student protests against the war in Gaza that have engulfed universities across the country, the New York University professor said while âprotests and slogansâ are ânormal political speechâ, tented camps that âblock students from going to class, well thatâs wrongâ.
âItâs against university policy and it interferes with the basic functioning of the universityâ, Professor Haidt told HARDtalk. âNow of course if you want to do civil disobedience and do that, you can do that. And then you should pay the consequences. The whole point of civil disobedience is you're willing to go to jail for it.â Haidtâs own office building at New York University was the site of a tented camp by protesters, dozens of whom were arrested.
Speaking to Stephen Sackur, the professor said that since around 2014, universities have tolerated students shutting down speakers they do not like. âWhat happened was nobody ever did anything about it, and that sent the message that if you are protesting for certain political causes, you can do and say whatever you want, you can intimidate people, you can threaten people, and nothing's going to happen to you.â He said this was the âback storyâ for explaining the behaviour of students in the current protests.
Asked if the protesters today were similar to the famous student protests across the United States in the 1960s, Professor Haidt said that although there is âcontinuityâ because such historic protests were often anti-war, âthere was a very different spiritâ to todayâs protests. He claimed that whereas the spirit in the 60s was âof joyâ, todayâs student activism, âis very, very different. Thereâs not the spirit of joyâ.