Dear Editor: UW Provost Patrick Farrell deserves much praise for defending the integrity of the University of Wisconsin against political grandstanding. But it should be understood that allowing Kevin Barrett to speak of his 9/11 “conspiracy theories” in class is more than an issue of allowing the free exchange of ideas.
The end purpose of schooling is for students to be able to reason through complex “theories,” weigh evidence according to traditional objective methods, and only then evaluate ideas. By standing up to power Farrell is implicitly insisting that basic standards of knowledge and civility in discourse be maintainedÃ? against the smearing and appeals to emotion that so far has dominated discussions of today’s wars….