Mick Hartley

A letter to the Times from a number of senior academics, including Alice Sullivan, Jo Phoenix, and Richard Dawkins:

We have written to Professor Irene Tracey, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, to express our grave concern regarding the disruption of Dr Michael Foran’s lectures on “Sex, Gender Identity and the Law” (“Protests cancel Oxford gender lectures”, Jun 9). After disruption of the first two lectures in the planned series, which included intimidation of students in the audience by the demonstrators, Dr Foran felt obliged to cancel the remaining lectures.

It appears that the university proctors authorised and facilitated protests inside the lecture theatre and did nothing to remove miscreants. Members of the Proctors’ Office, including senior figures, can be seen in videos of the disruption. The proctors have enabled the exercise of a heckler’s veto.

The failure of the proctors to uphold the essential functions of the university has created a hostile and degrading environment for Dr Foran and his students, and will inevitably contribute to a chilling effect, constraining the discussion of sex and gender at the university. The disruption of lectures violates the rights of students to listen, participate in discussion, and learn from their lecturers and from one another. The university must act to ensure that Dr Foran’s lectures can be rescheduled, and that no disruptive protest will be authorised. The proctors should receive training to ensure that they understand their duties.