Good news: Kings College London Student Union passed a motion at their AGM to send to the NUS Conference calling upon student unions to end safe space and no-platform policies at universities. The proposal won by a landslide.
This is a victory for freedom of speech and the students of KCL who campaigned for it deserve a round of applause. These guys give Millenials a good name.
Last year, Kings College forced its student Conservative association to hire “safe space stewards” to police an event with Jacob Rees-Mogg
This was apparently to ensure that the speaker – an elected Member of Parliament – and the audience would not say anything to contravene the University’s safe space policy.
But students have now said they don’t want to be mollycoddled and prefer to hear challenging and robust ideas. They have rejected the idea that they are too vulnerable or easily offended to handle opinions they may not like or agree with.
Hopefully more student unions around the country will be inspired to follow suit.
*This post was amended. It originally stated that KCLSU passed a motion to end safe spaces and no platform policies at the University, but in fact it was to send a motion to the NUS conference. Still, a step in the right direction.
Munira Mirza
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