Category Archives: Jordan Peterson

Harvard’s Open Campus Initiative says it wants to encourage free speech from all ideological viewpoints—starting with inviting controversial conservative voices.

In the month since Charles Murray’s scheduled talk at Middlebury College was thwarted by violent demonstrations on campus, several student groups at elite universities like Columbia and Harvard are courting Murray and other controversial speakers in attempt to challenge what they view as ideological intolerance on college campuses.

At Harvard University, the newly established Open Campus Initiative—dubbed the “free speech club” on campus—has booked Murray for a speaking engagement next semester and is hosting another campus pariah, University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson, for its first official event tonight, Monday.

Harvard’s Open Campus Initiative spent roughly $1,000 on security reinforcements surrounding Peterson’s arrival on campus, which has provoked backlash from LGBT students.

Peterson has been targeted by student protesters for speaking out against a proposed law in Canada that would mandate the use of gender-neutral descriptors like “they” as part of a broader push for transgender rights.

“Professor Peterson is an accomplished psychologist who has a lot more to talk about than gender pronouns, but I think idea of institutionally-backed efforts to force people to use certain words is worth debating,” Conor Healy, a sophomore at Harvard and head of the Open Campus Initiative, told The Daily Beast.

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