Her statements have shocked students.
Professor Louise Richardson made the controversial claims while speaking at the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit.
She explained she has had ‘many conversations’ with students who don’t feel comfortable because their teacher has expressed homophobic views.
Then she added: ‘And I say, “I’m sorry, but my job isn’t to make you feel comfortable. Education is not about being comfortable. I’m interested in making you uncomfortable.”‘
Students do not ‘have a right not to be offended’, claims Professor Richardson. She says university is the place for meeting people with different opinions.
She believes if a student doesn’t like their teacher’s view, ‘you challenge them, engage with them, and figure how a smart person can have views like that.’
“Work out how you can persuade him to change his mind. It is difficult, but it is absolutely what we have to do.”
The Oxford University LGBTQ Society and Oxford University SU LGBTQ Campaign have both responded to the Vice-Chancellor’s comments.
The university’s LGBTQ society posted a statement on their Facebook. They explained: ‘Such comments clearly indicate that she condones university staff members and academics expressing homophobic views towards students. This is incredibly concerning considering Oxford University has one of the highest LGBTQ+ proportion of students in the UK.
‘The LGBTQ+ Society understands and recognizes the opportunity to debate varying opinions and how such discussion can have positive outcomes.
‘However, The LGBTQ+ Society does not support the direct discrimination of minority to the detriment of student wellbeing. Such comments have no place in tutorials where students should be learning and discussing the content of their degrees.’
The Oxford SU LGBTQ+ Campaign are ‘angered and dismayed by Vice-Chancellor Richardson’s comments.’
They added: ‘While we recognize that individuals are entitled to personal views and opinions, we see no way in which these are relevant to an academic context, and believe that the expression of such views has detrimental effects which go far beyond making students feel “uncomfortable.”‘
Oxford City Council’s community safety lead Tom Hayes, a gay man himself, has now written to the professor condemning her comments.
Dear Prof. Richardson,
I hope this letter reaches you well. I’m an elected city councillor in Oxford, my city council’s Executive Board Member for Community Safety, and an LGBTQ person.
Students should confront uncomfortable and difficult subjects as part of their education. It’s right that students and their tutors should hold different views about classical texts, ending poverty, or any other appropriate subject for debate. Homophobia is not one side of a balanced debate. I’ve been a research fellow at a U.S. university and hold an Oxbridge degree, and my experience of both environments and how they foster critical thinking and reject prejudice has been positive.
It’s simply not acceptable for students to face prejudiced tutors who will propagate hateful views and pass off discrimination as debate. The University has a responsibility to provide a supportive environment for all students. I have to disagree with you: it is your job to stop homophobic views.
As I understand your recent remarks, you are proposing debates—conducted in the academic settings provided by the University—which centre on whether or not students are equal human beings on the basis of their sexual orientation. That’s wrong. You could replace the word homophobia in your comments with racism, sexism, Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, and any other closed-minded prejudice. Is it also your intention to tell young black or Asian, Jewish or Muslim students that they should, to quote your words, “engage” with “smart” professors who “express views against them?”
The assumption that a homophobe, racist or sexist will go on discriminating because they haven’t been debated properly is misguided. Your comments seem to me—and a large number of people—to misunderstand the fabric of hate as well as the power dynamics at play in any University.
Students need encouragement to report inappropriate comments, especially if they fear adverse repercussions for their academic studies and the possibility of tutors withholding references. They don’t need a Vice-Chancellor saying prejudice would be acceptable in an academic environment.
As Oxford City Council’s Executive Board Member for Community Safety, I work with a wide range of people and bodies in the city to encourage anyone who experiences or sees hate crime to report it. Oxford is seeing an increase in hate crime reports in the city, with recent figures showing reports of racist and homophobic incidents rising by more than 40 per cent. in a year. I ask you to join this effort to press everyone living and studying in the city to tell the relevant authorities about all experiences of prejudice based on disability, race, religion, transgender identity, and sexual orientation.
I’m glad that prejudice seems to be an exception among University staff and that so many of the University’s staff call out prejudiced comments whenever they’re aired. As Vice-Chancellor, you are in a privileged position of authority to stand up to bigotry and I would urge you to use your platform to speak out against discrimination on behalf of your students, staff, and the University itself.
Please do get in touch by email (cllrthayes@oxford.gov.uk) if you want to share any views or would be open to a meeting with me and other relevant individuals with a focus on tackling prejudice.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Tom Hayes
My bet is, she's gonna develop some "concern" real quick, after all, she's the one that said to debate it...wonder if she's regretting her poor choice of words right about now?
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