Trent free speech policy ‘step in the right direction’

Provincially mandated implementation of free speech policies at post-secondary institutions is progress, says a representative of a Trent University student group that has experienced the controversy that voicing an opinion can generate.

On Nov. 30, Trent’s board of directors approved a policy that gives faculty, staff and students the right to “freely examine, investigate, speculate upon, debate and comment on issues and ideas including the right to criticize popular points of view and society at large.”

“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” said Trent Conservatives president Christopher Mills, whose predecessor drew attention early last year for critiquing Trent’s new gender-neutral washroom policy in the student newspaper, The Arthur.

Third-year business student Heather Brown came under fire for speaking out about sharing intimate space with members of the biologically opposite sex.

Mill also pointed out the backlash created when the Trent Central Student Association hosted “It’s OK to be (Against) White (ness): Racial Injustice in a Time of Racist Entrenchment,” a talk by Dr. Michael Cappello last March.

The second-year business student, who was elected in midDecember, said he hopes the new policy will further foster respectful discourse at his campus.

Students should always be able to challenge ideas, said Mills, who has also experienced what it feels like to be shut down for speaking up.

The free speech issue has polarized students across Ontario, where protests and arrests have followed controversial speakers at many campuses.

Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Merrilee Fullerton told colleges and universities last August they needed to implement free-speech policies and have them in place for Jan. 1, 2019 after incidents across North America.

Ontario’s publicly funded colleges, including Fleming College, adopted a new standard policy that was adopted in midDecember.

Trent’s policy was developed in broad consultation with faculty, staff and student group representatives, said Nona Robinson, Trent’s associate vice-president students.

University administration wanted to keep the document short – it’s two pages – because the university already had similar provisions set out in the Trent University Charter of Student Rights and Responsibilities, she explained.

The university’s vision statement commits it to the creation of “vibrant, engaged and sustainable communities of learning, teaching and research committed to free enquiry and expression” and the new policy is no exception.

“We want students to be very engaged with social issues,” Robinson said, adding how key to her work is furthering everyone’s understanding of how opinions can impact others.

To that end, the university wants to work with faculty, staff and students as much as possible to ensure discourse is mutually respectful.

The new policy does not significantly change things, Robinson said, pointing out how the university has long worked to build mutual empathy as part of preparing students not only for the workplace, but to be active, engaged citizens.

“That, to me, is the key part of the education we are hoping to provide to our students,” she said.

Anthropology student Danielle Gill penned a letter to the editor in late November criticizing Trent’s safe space policy, writing how it is supposed to ensure everyone respects each other but often encroaches on the basic Canadian right to free speech.

That policy is used to silence students or faculty who challenged the status quo while contributing to narcissistic behaviour in students, wrote the mature student, who began her undergraduate career at Trent in September.

Studies show youth self-interest and narcissism is on the rise and youth’s “participation ribbon ways” have become the “token trademark” of a generation, Gill wrote.

“By silencing students who speak up about inconvenient truths with a counterproductive ‘safe space’ policy and rewarding extreme narcissism and tantrummy behaviour, we are failing the exact world we claim to want to care about,” she concluded.

NOTES: View Trent ’s free speech policy at www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com.