So, like, there was this big hullabaloo at Northeastern University recently. A bunch of students were all set to attend a guest speaker event with Raz Segal, who’s apparently an Israeli historian. The event was supposed to go down on March 27, but guess what? It got canned.
According to reports, the Northeastern University students were all walking by Dockser Hall, where the event was supposed to take place. Sounds like it would’ve been a pretty cool event, right? But nope, not happening.
A non-profit civil liberties group called FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) decided to send a strongly-worded letter to the university admins. They were all bent out of shape because the university supposedly asked a student group to cough up a list of attendees for the event. FIRE was all like, “Yo, this ain’t cool. Students should be able to attend events without feeling like they’re being watched all the time.”
The guest speaker in question, Raz Segal, is some big shot Israeli historian who also teaches Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University. He was all set to talk about some heavy topics like the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the use of the Holocaust as a weapon. The Jewish Law Students Advocating for Justice (JLAJ) group at the law school organized the event, but things took a turn when the university demanded a list of students attending.
The JLAJ group decided to cancel the event because they weren’t cool with the whole attendance list thing. Segal himself said he wouldn’t speak at Northeastern under those conditions. FIRE was all up in arms about it, saying the university needs to stick to its promises of free speech and stop asking for attendance lists at events.
The JLAJ group went on Instagram to spill the tea about the cancellation. They claimed that the university was targeting them because of their anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian views. They were like, “Um, hello? This event had Jewish students and faculty involved, but the university still found it too ‘controversial’ to happen without a list of attendees.”
Northeastern’s VP of Communications, Renata Nyul, tried to do some damage control. She said that the student group didn’t follow the right protocols for organizing the event, but the university was willing to work with them to make it happen. The student group decided to pull the plug at the last minute, which left everyone scratching their heads.
FIRE wasn’t buying it, though. They accused the administrators of being biased and not giving a clear reason for needing the attendance list. They wanted a proper response by May 2, or else things were gonna get even messier.
In the end, it seems like Northeastern dropped the ball on this one. The students wanted to have a meaningful discussion, but all they got was a bunch of drama. Not really sure why this matters, but hey, that’s the news for you. Life at Northeastern, am I right?
