As a second-semester senior jumping into job hunting and law school admissions, I've become accustomed to having my résumé tossed aside despite - not to toot my own horn or anything - its admittedly pretty good credentials.
No one told me that in the 21st century, I needed to save the world to get anywhere, but even I was surprised when I saw earlier this week that being a former president, not to mention a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and best-selling author, doesn't win you the respect it used to.
After months of fanfare and debate about "balance," Jimmy Carter finally spoke at Brandeis University last Monday about his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. To my relief, the speech, in which Carter reiterated his criticisms of Israeli domestic policies, took place without incident and garnered the president-turned-humanitarian several rounds of applause from the crowd of 1,700 Brandeis students and faculty.
It's a shame, though, that Brandeis administrators didn't show Carter the same level of hospitality.
University President Jehuda Reinharz, in the name of "ideological balance," initially proposed that if Carter came to campus he should debate Harvard law professor and ardent Israel supporter Alan Dershowitz. After more than 100 students and faculty signed a petition proposing that Carter speak alone, Reinharz dropped the ill-conceived debate format idea.
Carter deserved more respect than that. A man of his stature should not be forced to debate an ideological adversary. Yes, his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict are controversial, but that is all the more reason to give him the microphone and listen.
On campuses around the country, including our own, debates are replacing lectures as the most popular format for campus events. Just take a look at your television screen: The O'Reilly Factor, in which accomplished speakers are invited to share their expertise only to be repeatedly interrupted and scrutinized by a host more concerned with sermonizing than interviewing, has turned political discourse into a boxing match.
Reinharz' proposed "balancing" of Carter's speech was not only an insult to the former head of state, but it also insulted the intelligence of Brandeis' student body by presuming that they need to be reminded of what the mainstream Jewish stance on Israel is. Brandeis students don't need to be reminded of what the defense of Israel is; they've been surrounded by it most of their lives.
Reinharz made a similar blunder last spring when he ordered the removal of a student art installation that featured letters and drawings made by children and teenagers in a West Bank youth center. He brazenly defended the act of censorship by claiming that he has no problem with pro-Palestinian speech on campus, but that the student exhibits must present "both sides of an issue."
"Balance" has become a buzzword here at BC, joining the ranks of "diversity" and "Jesuit ideals." The new speaker policy from the Office of the Dean for Student Development speaker policy requires that "balanced views be presented" if student groups bring speakers to campus that are deemed hostile to BC's Jesuit mission.
No one doubts that presenting a wide range of diverse viewpoints is critically important to the mission of higher education. But "balancing" individual events, like Brandeis tried to do with Carter's visit and BC will likely do if, say, a fiercely pro-choice speaker comes to campus, just doesn't make that much sense.
A university should seek to bring a wide range of speakers in order to promote true dialogue on hot-button issues. If students at Brandeis, after respectfully listening to what Carter had to say, still didn't agree with him, they can - and should - bring in a speaker like Dershowitz to articulate their viewpoints the next week.
Attempting to present both sides of an issue when a speaker comes to campus to explicitly talk about his or her side just deprives students of receiving unfiltered information that they can use to reevaluate their way of seeing the world.
Carolyn Mattus is a columnist for The Heights. She welcomes comments at mailto:mattusc@bcheights.com
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