University leaders ‘should not take student protests personally’

What utter nonsense. "Don't take it personally"? When 'student' protesters demand that VCs resign, or claim they University management are "directly supporting genocide" (an utterly fallacious claim), how should they not be taken personally? So much anger from these child agitators is directed at individuals and personally targeted.

"Although freedom of expression is protected by law, so are protections against harassment and discrimination, she highlighted. Gender critical expression is a protected belief, but trans identity is also protected under equality law. And while right to protest is protected, so too is the right to study and work free from disruption." These are not really tensions at all. They only become so when the "protesters" behave in coercive, disruptive, intolerant and, even, threatening ways. And as for personal attacks on VCs, these are often motivated by a sense of injustice at the level of VC and senior management pay and excessive pay awards, while academic staff get modest if any pay increases and are threatened with redundancy, often in an insensitive and brutal manner. So on the whole I would take those protests personally if I were a VC.

It's amazing how often the things that happen in higher education are not the fault of those in charge of higher education. Financial crises, student protests at university policies, and so on

Name one, if not more, university heads who take protests--undefined--"personally"--also undefined What is the point of this ....?

This article makes a great point. Universities need to be spaces where people can openly and respectfully discuss important issues, recognising this often means disagreement. It's a valuable part of students' learning and universities' role in society.

Do you know, in my experience these VCs often have the hide of a rhino so they don't really bother about personal attacks, they don't really care. Some of them seem to view these as a badge of honor anyway, trot g out the silly mantra that "I did not do this job to be liked" etc or other Reggie Perrin style cliches. If they were that sensitive they would have agreed to pay reform long ago. I admit there are a few notable exceptions, which I won't name, though we all know who they are, who have a Trump-like sensitivity other than any form of criticism, but all these challenges tend to come from the staff rather than the students. Seems a bit of a silly story really mangling different narratives.

The headline in the article takes attention away from the important issues raised. Freedom of Speech, protests on different issues (whether we agree or not), conflicting rights are getting more heated on many university campuses. It is important that universities find ways to deal with this