Oxford University is developing guidelines on free expression with the assistance of a well-known radical race activist.
The co-founder of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, Simukai Chigudu, has been a contributor to a “framework” that institutions can use.
The associate professor of African politics has previously demanded that the imperialist Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel College be demolished and that the curriculum be decolonized.
He asserted during a meeting that arguments in favor of free speech are used to “preserve current power systems.”
An Oxford Free Speech Forum, believed to include five colleges—Brasenose, Somerville, Magdalen, and Mansfield—is developing the framework.
David Isaac, provost of Worcester College, who recently came under fire for cancelling a Christian conference, serves as its chairman.
The forum’s goal is to offer guidance on how academics and students should understand and respond to the Government’s Free Speech Bill, which is presently being debated in Parliament.
The Bill seeks to eradicate “cancel culture” and censorship on college campuses.
According to the forum’s organizers, the goal is to “respectfully tackle difficult decisions about issues like race, disability, and trans rights.”
Colleges will voluntarily adopt the recommendations, which will not take the place of the university’s official free speech policy.
One student who attended forum meetings, however, described them as sinister and retrograde.
This project was not developed in a transparent or democratic manner, they claimed over the weekend. Even when they are not intended, restrictions are referred to as guidance.
Mr. Isaac can be heard telling attendees in a recording of a meeting that was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph that he did not “recognize” the description of “Left-leaning” universities as places where people are no-platformed and difficult conversations are avoided.
In apparent reference to the new legislation, he continued, “I don’t believe, speaking very personally, that freedom of speech needs to be imposed upon universities.”
Free speech can sometimes be “Janus-faced,” according to Professor Chigudu, who also stated at the meeting in March that it “can sometimes help to preserve existing power systems.”
Prior to this, Mr. Isaac served as the chairman of Stonewall and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
He left Stonewall in 2012, three years before the organization became “trans inclusive” and before it came under fire for allegedly suppressing discussion on the topic.
When he first started working at Worcester, he received criticism for expressing regret to kids over the “distress” that hosting a Christian Concern summer camp and cancelling a tentative reservation for this year had created.
“The goal of the event hosted in March, and student-led activities thereafter, was to promote free speech, and to foster confident and courteous discussion of controversial and sensitive topics,” stated Helen Mountfield, president of Mansfield College.
Attempts to reach Mr. Isaac and Professor Chigudu for comment last night were unsuccessful.