It is very tense. We are all very worried about violence.
We live in an ideological echo chamber at UC Berkeley, where students are only exposed to one set of views in their classrooms. We can invite the traditional conservative that focuses on lower taxes, but that doesn’t fill seats and that doesn’t create that dialogue.
There’s a real lack of civil discourse in society in general right now. On campus what it translates into a lot is people simply arguing that viewpoints they disagree with should not be aired.
It’s very simple. We have an event policy that makes it possible for the university to support its 1,000 student organizations. If people don’t play by the rules, the university cannot meet that responsibility.
If you poke the average student and ask them what they think about this, they’d say I’m tired of students being blamed for this. It's pretty frustrating.
I'm over inviting white supremacists onto our campus. Before I prioritize free speech, I'm going to prioritize trans people that Milo wanted to out, or the Black lives that Ann was going to degrade. Before I'm dedicated to free speech, I'm dedicated to people's survival.