Quote of the Day

Ashley Thorne

From a letter to the editor of the Gonzaga Bulletin:

Alfino claims that performance of "The Vagina Monologues" is a matter of academic freedom.  However, academic freedom is not a blanket principle that mandates or legitimates that anything and everything can or must be done in an academic context.  It is, rather, the policy that specifies that academic life presumes the free inquiry into truth.

The author, David Calhoun (director of Gonzaga's Socratic Club), also makes some good points about the university's efforts to exclude dissenting voices from the conversation about the campus performance of "The Vagina Monologues." His letter responds to a posting by Gonzaga philosophy professor Mark Alfino, which argues that "academic freedom justifies allowing the play."

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