LIFE LESSONS | Response to student protests must be both firm and humane

The weary taxpayer is completely within their rights to ask: why can’t universities get their act together for a change? Once again there are protests on campus, sometimes violent, disruptive and threatening other people’s rights. It is rare these days to find a peaceful protest marked by persuasive arguments and calculated strategies for moving the needle on student exclusions whether from class lectures or a place to sleep.

You would think that with all the brainpower occupying our universities, we would have had long-term solutions by now. It is not my goal to rehearse the reasons for the chaos. We know the causes, whether it is the unreliability of NSFAS funding or the corruption of the National Senior Certificate where inflated marks in the form of bachelor’s passes (university entrance) push tens of thousands of students to universities with limited places for the top performers only.

What I wish to focus on, rather, is why universities are so inept at managing the violent and disruptive protests even if the students are knocking on the wrong door for the resolution of their problems. There are three discernible patterns of political dysfunction in our institutions. The first isthe liberal curseof universities like UCT.

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When protests turn violent, public roads are disrupted, and fellow students ejected from lecture rooms, the liberals at this institution go into handwringing fits of conscience best described as cringeworthy. Should we bring the police or security onto campus to protect public (that’s right) property? In those moments, leaders at the top find their hands tied even as flames engulf artworks, books burn and people are assaulted.

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