In their commitment to assuming the role of parents, many educational institutions have thwarted the free speech of their students with their newfound responsibilities. In bringing to light the ways in which UC Berkeley specifically saw this manifest on their campus through various campus-wide regulations in the 60s, both the reading and film demonstrate the need to advocate for free speech when it is jeopardized because it is a fundamental aspect in ensuring a fair American education system. The root of the issue of free speech censorship can be seen in the following: “[Clark Kerr] presided over an institution, committed to acting in loco parentis… Academic conservatives complained that administrators and faculty members were no longer supervising
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One of the ways in which students saw this reveal itself in their lives is made evident through the attempted silencing of their voices: “... campus authorities had declared off limits for advocates of civil rights and other causes a stretch of Telegraph Avenue… For years the strip had been accepted as a place where students could hand out pamphlets, solicit names for petitions, and sign people up” (Burner). Through this passage, it is made clear the limit on their free speech took on a physical appearance. A place that had been a haven of free speech, providing students with the opportunity to “hand out pamphlets” for club meetings or local events, and gather signatures for “petitions” they were passionate about relating to issues in which they wanted to see change transpire, had been shut down. By targeting this space, the school simultaneously took away their right to express their perspectives without censorship. This decision can be seen as a wider goal of the university to undermine the effort of students to tackle social and political issues, an immense matter the Berkeley in the 60’s film focuses …show more content…
The unification between students and faculty the film highlights is illustrative of the idea that fighting for free speech is a worthwhile investment if we want to preserve campuses as spaces that are accepting of all perspectives. Beyond Berkeley, college campuses around the nation will only be successful in providing their students with the right to free speech when faculty see themselves not as parents of their students, but rather as equal humans who can act in solidarity with
One of the ways in which students saw this reveal itself in their lives is made evident through the attempted silencing of their voices: “... campus authorities had declared off limits for advocates of civil rights and other causes a stretch of Telegraph Avenue… For years the strip had been accepted as a place where students could hand out pamphlets, solicit names for petitions, and sign people up” (Burner). Through this passage, it is made clear the limit on their free speech took on a physical appearance. A place that had been a haven of free speech, providing students with the opportunity to “hand out pamphlets” for club meetings or local events, and gather signatures for “petitions” they were passionate about relating to issues in which they wanted to see change transpire, had been shut down. By targeting this space, the school simultaneously took away their right to express their perspectives without censorship. This decision can be seen as a wider goal of the university to undermine the effort of students to tackle social and political issues, an immense matter the Berkeley in the 60’s film focuses …show more content…
The unification between students and faculty the film highlights is illustrative of the idea that fighting for free speech is a worthwhile investment if we want to preserve campuses as spaces that are accepting of all perspectives. Beyond Berkeley, college campuses around the nation will only be successful in providing their students with the right to free speech when faculty see themselves not as parents of their students, but rather as equal humans who can act in solidarity with