Is the university over?
In 2021, campus cancel culture took an ugly turn.
Lockdown kept Britain’s students off campus for much of the past 12 months, but universities still kept hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. 2021 was the year No Platforming turned ugly.
This year’s season finale was performed by students at Durham University, with Rod Liddle superbly cast as pantomime villain. Liddle’s mere presence on campus was probably triggering enough for many of the north-east’s poshest students, but it was his quips about the university’s fully trained-up student sex wokers that led some to flounce out midway through his after-dinner speech. He was invited by Tim Luckhurst, the principal of Durham’s South College. Luckhurst branded those who left ‘pathetic’. Events then spiralled.
Hundreds of students joined protests calling for Luckhurst’s resignation while Durham’s acting vice-chancellor provided reassurances that safety was his top priority, as if Liddle and Luckhurst had somehow dangerously imperilled the students. With tragic predictability, academics backed the protesters rather than defending free speech. Dr Susan Frenk, another of Durham’s college principals, declared: ‘The pain cannot be erased, but we can try to play our part in healing the wounds.’ Spare us, please! Liddle gave an after-dinner speech, he didn’t open fire into the crowd. Meanwhile, Luckhurst has ‘stepped back’ from his duties pending an inquiry.