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We’ve been helping a group of academics at Cardiff who’ve been targeted and harassed for asking the University to look again at its membership of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme. Cardiff has failed to take appropriate action, despite threats of violence against these academics, and has even misplaced evidence related to the case. The Free Speech Union has written to the Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff, Professor Colin Riordan, to ask him to set up an independent inquiry into the University’s failure to properly investigate the matter, and to present new evidence of the continuing efforts to threaten and intimidate our members.

Below, you can read our original letter, the reply we received from Professor Riordan on 28th March 2022 and another letter from us in response to Professor Riordan’s reply.

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Letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff about threats of violence against a group of our members at the UniversityRead More »

We’ve written to Jeremy Miles MS, Minister for Education, urging him to intervene in the situation at Cardiff University where several of our members and their colleagues, all academic staff, have been targeted by trans activists in a long-running campaign of intimidation. It began in June 2021 after the academics urged Cardiff to reconsider its continuing participation in the Stonewall Diversity Champion scheme. Following this, a leaflet was distributed on campus picturing a woman holding a gun, the names and pictures of the signatories, and the caption “ACT NOW”. A student whistleblower then revealed violent threats being made on the Facebook page of the Cardiff LGBT+ Society. This evidence was all presented to the University and the police, but neither Cardiff University authorities nor the police responded robustly to protect these academics. The University failed to conduct a thorough investigation in a timely manner and misplaced evidence. It defended messages referring to academics as an ”ignorant fuckface” and a call to kneecap them as legitimate expressions of free speech, even after one of the signatories had his car window smashed.

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Letter to Minister for Education concerning intimidation campaign against Cardiff academicsRead More »

We’ve written to Professor Karen O’Brien, the new Vice-Chancellor of Durham University, objecting to a requirement that those applying for the role of Assistant Professor in Durham’s International Relations department provide a statement affirming their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are concerned that requiring applicants to profess their fealty to a particular belief system could be a breach of the Equality Act 2010, as well as Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

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Letter to Professor Karen O’Brien, Vice-Chancellor of Durham University, concerning a ‘diversity pledge’ that applicants for Assistant Professorships are required to makeRead More »

We have written to Professor Martin Jones, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Staffordshire University, in defence of our member Professor James Treadwell, a criminologist. He has been placed under investigation by the University after he engaged in the debate over gender self-identification and the risk it poses to female inmates in women’s prisons, following a complaint about his comments from trans activists.

Below, you can see our original letter and the reply we received from Professor Martin Jones on 31st January 2022.

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Letter to Professor Martin Jones, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Staffordshire University, regarding the investigation into Professor James Treadwell by Staffordshire UniversityRead More »

We’ve written to Dr Michael Spence, the Vice-Chancellor of UCL, about the requirement that anyone in a grade 8 job at the University, or applying for one, has to remove ‘dead white able-bodied European men’ from reading lists, ‘check their privilege’ and ‘acknowledge the prejudice baked into their field’ – a requirement of UCL’s ‘Liberating the Curriculum’ policy. We think this is an infringement of their right to free speech and almost certainly unlawful. You can read about the letter – and UCL’s reaction – in the Telegraph.

Below, you can see our original letter and the reply we received from Dr Micael Spence on 20th December 2021.

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Letter to the Vice-Chancellor of UCL About ‘Liberating the Curriculum’Read More »

We’ve written to Lord Wharton, the Chair of the Office for Students, asking him to pay close attention to the current investigation of Tim Luckhurst, the Principal of South College, Durham who is subject to a witch-hunt at the University following his invitation to Rod Liddle to give an after-dinner speech on Friday 3 December. Following his receipt of this letter, Lord Wharton gave an interview to the Telegraph in which he said: “As a point of principle it is important for students to engage with views and theories with which they may not agree. A robust but tolerant sharing of views is an essential element of the whole experience of higher education.”

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Letter to Lord Wharton regarding Professor Timothy LuckhurstRead More »

We have written to Mr Alan Bookbinder, the Master of Downing College, Cambridge about its new ‘Report Racism Guidance‘ which replicates many of the legally questionable aspects of the University’s controversial ‘Report + Support’ policy which was withdrawn by the Vice-Chancellor last May after the Free Speech Union wrote to him to complain about it. You can read about this letter, and why we’re concerned about Downing’s new guidance, in the Telegraph here. We hope this letter will have a similar effect to our previous one.

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Letter to Master of Downing College about its new ‘Report Racism Guidance’Read More »

We were contacted anonymously by a student at Aston University in Birmingham after he’d been handed a guidance document by the School of Social Sciences and Humanities that contained a long list of banned words and phrases. They included ‘mankind’, ‘native’ and ‘mixed race’. We have written to the Vice-Chancellor objecting to this and asking for his assurance that any students using the proscribed language will not be penalised in any way.

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Letter to Professor Alec Cameron about the list of proscribed words sent to all new students in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Aston University.Read More »