Norman Finklestein Debate

Today was my first day of classes, and it was a pretty unique day.

The day commenced with with me getting a police escort into my first class because of a protest that was being held outside of my building (990 W. fullerton).

This is a short summary of why exactly all of this was going on: You see, there is (well was at this point) a teacher here on campus by the name of Norman Finklestein who is/was a political science teacher here at DePaul and he was denied tenure supposedly because of his political views. After being denied tenure he was promptly fired from DePaul University.

Students, jewish organizations, and people from the general public came to DePaul on the first day of classes to protest this and to hear Norman speak in the quad. Norman claimed that he would come to classes on the first day of school and, if denied access to his classes, would attempt to give a speech/class in the quad. Well, Norman Finklestein was denied access to his room and because of all of the press coverage and activism, he was not arrested and was allowed to make a speech in the quad (with police securing the area and film crews rolling vigorously). I was lucky enough to attend his speech and was very glad that I did. Now I do not know Mr. Finklestein's political viewpoints but I do know that they are liberal and not remotely radical at all. I am not going to make a big speech here about academic freedom or freedom of speech, but I will say this: College is an excelent time for students to be introduced to different viewpoints of all types. There is a fine line between radical and civil, and that is a line I do not think Mr. Finklestein crossed, therefore I feel as though we are being censored and treated like children here at DePaul if we can not be exposed to opposing viewpoints.

Anyway, classes were good.