Stephen Downes

This article is set strictly within a U.K. context but it raises what I think is a wider issue: who determines what it is that students' unions ought to do? Here we have the the Secretary of State noting, "I fully expect student unions to protect lawful free speech, whether they agree with the views expressed or not." I would point out that there is a very wide chasm between a requirement to respect free speech, as expected of a democratic organization, and which would govern the students' union internally, and to protect free speech, which requires that they take on actions against external agencies (and most notably, the university administration) and in contexts outside their own internal operations. Whatever I may think about the matter, I think it should be up to students to determine how, whether and when to protect free speech, and especially to determine exactly what sort of speech is to be protected.