Universities ostensibly employ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) staff to create more tolerant and welcoming environments for students from all backgrounds. A previous Heritage Backgrounder documented that the number of people devoted to DEI efforts has grown to about 45 people at the average university.
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One of the most disturbing parts of Azoulay’s lecture was the response from those present.
At the outset, the Cornell chair of architecture, Andrea Lee Simitch, acknowledged that the lecture was controversial and promised to organize a future discussion with different viewpoints. In response, some 1,000 academics, architects, and Cornellians signed an open letter against bringing in another speaker. Their fear of engaging in dialogue and refusal to hear another side is the antithesis of academia, and a clear example of censorship.
This is not the only recent instance of a guest speaker at Cornell pushing an anti-Israel agenda.
In November, assistant professor Julia Chang invited Sa’ed Atshan, himself an assistant professor of peace and conflict studies at Swarthmore College and author of
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