A group of Stanford professors have moved to end an anonymous system that allows students to report discrimination as part of a wider move to push back against a claimed “culture of censorship” at universities. Last month, a screenshot of a student reading Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf was reported in the system, according to the Stanford Daily. Faculty members leading the charge to shut the system down say they didn’t know it even existed until they read the student newspaper, one comparing the system to “McCarthyism.” Launched in 2021, students are encouraged to report incidents in which they felt harmed, which triggers a voluntary inquiry of both the student who filed the report and the alleged perpetrator. Seventy-seven faculty members have signed a petition calling on the school to investigate in hopes they toss the system out. This comes as a larger movement by Speech First, a group who claim colleges are rampant with censorship, has filed suit against several universities for their bias reporting systems. In one case, they listed three students who believe gay people don’t deserve the right to marry, are anti-abortion, and don’t support the Black Lives Matter movement as plaintiffs, arguing the students don’t feel safe on campus given they could be reported for their bigoted views.
