President of Chapman University Jim Doti is not focusing on how to minimize microaggressions on his campus. In fact, he’s doing just the opposite.
In an interview with Nick Gillespie on Reason TV, Doti said he agrees with comedian Jerry Seinfeld when it comes to political correctness on college campuses.
Free speech on college campuses is more restrictive now than it was 20 years ago according to Doti, who has served as president of the private school near Los Angeles since 1991. To him, the open and free expression of ideas is one of the most important values of higher education.
However, in today’s college environment there are ever-increasing restrictions on speech, especially speech that can be perceived as insulting or discriminatory. Schools across the country are coming out with new rules and guidelines to eliminate “microaggressions,” which are words or actions that unintentionally discriminate against others.
Doti told Reason that this movement is driven by increased sensitivity from everyone – students, faculty and outside actors.
“I think it’s a general symptom of increasing victimization, where people feel that they’re victims of some kind of social stigmatization,” he said. “And as a result you have to be very, very sensitive.”
Doti recognized the positive aspects of today’s culture when it comes to issues like bullying; although, he still believes schools should favor free speech over feelings.
“Free speech is not about being sensitive,” Doti said. “Free speech is having the courage of one’s convictions and belief in free expression that one can say anything.”
“We need to get over being sensitive to this and having our feelings hurt,” he said.
Doti received a lot of criticism last fall for opposing the establishment of a multicultural center at Chapman. According to the student newspaper The Panther, Doti said the proposed center would “ghettoize” campus.
Doti explained his reasoning for opposing the center in an editorial for the Orange County Register.
“We all want tolerance. We want respect for and appreciation of diversity. But we cannot achieve those ends, in my opinion, by creating a multicultural center that would encourage separation based on group identity,” he wrote.
