Doesn't stop him being an ace writer.
You shouldn't censor people because of what they think.
David Cohen guardian.co.uk, Thursday April 12 2001 18:00 BST A professor of drama at the Arizona State University has been denied tenure because of his insistence on teaching the works of William Shakespeare, and at least one student newspaper in Canada is not amused. The head of the department had maintained that Shakespeare was "racist and sexist" and therefore not appropriate content for university students, and subsequently vowed to "kill off the classics". The university has replaced Hamlet with "Betty the Yeti: An Eco Fable", in which a feminist environmentalist leaves her husband to go live "in harmony with nature" and begins a sexual affair with a sasquatch.
A gruff editorial response published in The Varsity, a student newspaper at the University of Toronto, Canada, said that such "assaults on the honour and integrity of higher education" are part of the wider problem of diversity consciousness at universities, with its own institution being a prime example. "The focus of academia these days, it seems, is not reason, not the pursuit of knowledge, not the preparation for a career but rather something called 'multiculturalism'," the paper complained.
The paper cited another recent case, at the University of Wisconsin, where an information brochure sent to prospective students featured a large photograph of students cheering on the school football team. The photo made sure to maintain an "ethnic balance" and featured an equal number of white, black, Asian and Hispanic students. The photo was a fake, doctored from an original in which all the cheering students had been white. The university had found this offensive and super-imposed photographs of minority students into the picture. "Most people are quick to accept this new code and even applaud it," the article said. "After all, this is about tolerance and equality, right? No, it's not. 'Ethnic diversity' is merely racism in a politically correct disguise."
Well, sure. But at The Post student paper at Ohio University, there were bigger fish to fry this past week. An editorial weighed in on the issue of the proposed amendment before the US Congress that would prohibit the physical desecration of the American national flag. The initiative already has more than 100 co-sponsors in the country's House of Representatives and it needs "to be struck down," the paper said. "It would be a very hollow victory indeed if we preserved the symbol of our freedom by chipping away at those fundamental freedoms themselves."
At the University of Melbourne, in Australia, the student organ Farrago ran the colourful but possibly overstated headline, "Why Melbourne University Is F**ked". The article reported that the institution's vice-chancellor, Alan Gilbert, had been acting in "an increasingly ditzy manner" after a London newspaper revealed that the institution's sponsorship plans for a private university looked to be on very shaky financial ground. The paper also included news of a report tabled recently in the Australian parliament that examines the question of possible links between a $2m "donation" made recently to the university and the upgrading of an unidentified postgraduate student's marks.
Singapore's Quo Vadis Aspire, the official voice of the student union at the National University of Singapore, appeared to be tempting fate this week by running what it billed as being an independently minded article on one of the city-state's few opposition MPs, Chiam See Tong, who recently visited the national university to address a lunchtime meeting of 400 students. "I was never the type to attend any political rallies or worry too deeply about the political fate of Singapore," writer Kenneth Tan began. However, he added, a touch generously, "while I disagreed with many issues Mr Chiam raised and was generally unimpressed with his sometimes lame answers in the Q&A session, I managed to get something out of the lecture. I walked out with my thoughts provoked and though I most probably wouldn't stand in Hong Lim Square speaking for the Opposition, much less vote for them (at least not in the next elections), their alternative voice is one to be heard." So that's OK then. (A title of another unintentionally humorous article published in the same edition of the publication read, "Cell-phones - Friend Or Foe?")
And this just in at The Heights, the student newspaper at Boston College, "I've been itching to get this out for a while," wrote Annie Barrat, in an editorial page commentary on current affairs. "Mayonnaise is wonderful. It tastes great. It's a major asset to any sandwich, or to fries, if you're going for that pseudo-European or 'Matthew Perry in The Whole Nine Yards' look... So go out there, grab some packets, and go nuts. You too can 'show them' and 'live on the edge
That's what happens.
