Protests on campus should not be allowed because it pushes the boundaries of our ethics and defeats the very foundations of why a learning institution exists. Individuals or groups that protest usually feel very strongly about a certain subject, object or policy. Just because they feel so strongly, doesn’t mean that they have to ruin the integrity of our school grounds.
Imagine you, a student, having to walk down the Mall at Pierce and being bombarded with a mass of students trying to convince you to choose a side to a subject, when one cannot even choose a major.
Most of the students that attend Pierce are adults and of voting age. That entitles them to have a say about how the world around them functions, be it school or government. That doesn’t mean that they have to shout, pout, or frown. Instead, they can use the governing system set in place to propel the change they want to see.
Protest is an expression on behalf of a cause using words or actions with regard to particular events, policies or situations, according to Wikipedia. When defined as a noun, it means a statement or action expressing disapproval or objection to something. When defined as a verb, it means a complaint, objection, or display of unwillingness, usually to an idea or a course of action.
Campuses should be unbiased. Protesters don’t always have two sides to their arguments, nor do they always have their information gathered correctly. With students having to take fake news workshops this semester to help them differentiate from what is true and what is false, how well are things going to go when people believe things are true, such as the Bowling Green massacre?
Some protests can turn violent, as witnessed at the University of California, Berkeley on Feb 1. The university had to cancel a guest speech by writer Milo Yiannopoulos after demonstrators set fires and threw objects at buildings to protest his appearance.
Many of the protests happening are preventing free speech from proceeding in an open forum where individuals can learn to understand another’s side.
Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Only by listening to others speak can we know their philosophies, and that can empower our beliefs.
Keeping our campus free of protests allows our flourishing minds to decide which way we want to go on a subject without having it be forced down our throats. Even though it is good to hear both sides to every issue, with active protesting, unfortunately, most of the time we only hear one.
