A bitter struggle between political correctness and free speech at Queen’s University has ended with the termination of a controversial program designed to combat racism on campus, said Academic Vice-Principal Patrick Deane in a press release dated Feb. 11.
A panel created in December recently filed their report on the Intergroup Dialogue Program, an initiative set up at Queen’s in September aiming to help students discuss topics related to diversity. The report recommended that the program be terminated immediately.
The Intergroup Dialogue program, which has been successful in several universities in the United States, was composed of six Queen’s student facilitators who organized events in residences to facilitate discussion of diversity issues. They were also supposed to take advantage of teachable moments by talking to people they overheard making statements that could be considered offensive.
It is this reactive part of the program that was criticized by many Queen’s students and the panel’s report. While stressing the need to address offensive behaviour at Queen’s, the report stated that the way the facilitators intervened had “the potential of making students feel unsafe or under surveillance.”
Nick Kadysh, a Queen’s graduate who created a Facebook group opposing the program, said he thought the university didn’t have any choice but to terminate the program.
“There was a real visceral student outcry,” he said, adding that he saw the program’s end coming as soon as Deane set up the review panel.
The report also made two other recommendations: that the program’s facilitators should continue to fight discrimination in residence without using peoples’ conversations as teaching opportunities and that the university should explore other methods of confronting diversity issues.
This sentiment was echoed by Deane, who said in the press release that “Queen’s University remains firmly committed to eliminating intolerance and to advancing a climate of inclusiveness throughout the institution.”
Kadysh said Queen’s should learn from its mistakes and “think twice before instituting any radical pilot program.” He agrees with the report’s claim that racism is a legitimate problem both at Queen’s and in society, but said it cannot be eliminated by legislation.
“If it could, we would have done away with racism a long time ago,” he said.