James Orr’s lectures in Cambridge have been disrupted again by students. On Friday, a mob of protesters shouted and banged on the windows of the associate professor of religion’s lesson in an apparent effort to dissuade undergraduates from taking his paper. A week earlier, two student activists members of the Fire James Orr Campaign disrupted a lecture he was delivering.
Demonstrators say they won’t stop until the former head of policy at Reform UK stops teaching at Cambridge. The university needs to resist this blatant attempt at cancel culture.
What is unfolding in Cambridge appears to be a reaction against the Jason Arday scandal, whose death the protesters are seeking to avenge. But Orr was not responsible for Arday’s death.
After Orr’s first year lecture was interrupted by students filming him while accusing him of complicity in the death of Arday and complicity in genocide last week, the Divinity faculty has taken steps to protect his teaching from further political intimidation.
In a faculty email on the 5 November, students and staff were made aware of special arrangements being made for Friday, when Orr’s lectures take place, due to concerns for the welfare of him and his students.
Nany of those campaigning against Orr are not actually members of the University
These included the presence of University proctors in his two Friday lectures, the recording of lectures for the benefit of students who have told staff that they are too frightened to attend, and the checking by security of the student IDs of all who entered the building.
I was told by security staff that the measure to check IDs was a response to the fact that many of those campaigning against Orr are not actually members of the University.
Although my 1pm second year lecture passed without incident, everyone in the room was kept keenly aware of the events of last week by the presence of the proctor, in white tie and gown, who stood in the corner of the room. There, he gravely flipped through the pages of a lecture handout that Orr had given him.
However, when we left, and Orr’s first year lecture began, my classmates and I were greeted by a loud group of protesters outside the building, beating drums and waving large communist banners.
They brandished signs bearing James Orr’s face, as well as phones that they were using to film the building. Students were wary of standing in the foyer, fearing that they would be caught on video which might be posted online.
As the protesters screamed about Orr being ‘bought by Palantir’, the Chair of the Board of Divinity, Richard Rex, emphatically denied to a group of students inside the building that the faculty had ever accepted money linked to either Peter Thiel or his company. He expressed utter bemusement that this story has gained so much traction. Furthermore, as of 9 November, the divinity faculty has sent out an email to staff and students formally denying that such a donation ever took place.
The other issue that the protesters were yelling about was the death of Arday. In the faculty library, on the second floor of the building, his name was ringing out among the few students who were trying to press on with work.
The campaign against Orr is fundamentally a reaction against the media storm that descended on Arday over the summer, with him being found dead just days after Cambridge announced an investigation into allegations of his academic misconduct.
The shock of the whole affair is still felt keenly at Cambridge. But because of the faceless nature of media mass scrutiny, activists have struggled to find individuals to blame.
However, rather than going after the staff who hired Arday and failed to question his dubious academic record before doing so, protestors have decided to avenge Arday’s death by calling for an entirely innocent unrelated lecturer to be ‘kicked off campus’.
It doesn’t matter that there is no substantial link between Orr and Arday, it only matters that Orr is a known conservative. And because these campaigners associate scrutiny of Arday with the right, James Orr is deemed to be a legitimate target for intimidation and harassment. One of their incoherent arguments for his guilt is that he is a member of the Free Speech Union. This is just one example of their bewildering refusal to criticise him for anything he is actually liable for.
I wish I could say that political intimidation is unusual at my university
Unfortunately, the room used by Orr for his first-year lecture has windows opening out onto the Divinity faculty garden, and when the protesting mob became aware of this they moved around the building to bang on the windows and walls to stop him teaching. Students inside the room have described feeling panicked, and that Orr struggled to respond to student questions due to the noise. I was also told that the distraction stopped him from being able to effortlessly reference historical dates from memory as is characteristic of his lecture style. Unfortunately, many students are supportive of the protesters, with some students even being heard commenting that they would like to see Orr physically attacked.
I wish I could say that political intimidation is unusual at my university, but this instance of campaigning with the intent to silence dissenters from Cambridge’s political monoculture is unfortunately normal. Instances abound of events being cancelled, or kept under the radar due to the risk of counter protests.
The Cambridge University Society of Women, whose members have faced a relentless campaign of abuse for their gender critical beliefs, continue to advertise the locations of their events only on the day itself, in an attempt to avoid confrontation from other students. Several events hosting right-wing speakers have been cancelled in recent years due to student pressure.
My prediction is that we will not have seen the last of this campaign, as the wound that sparked it, the death of Jason Arday, is deep, and will not soon be forgotten. While it is the right of these protesters to speak out, civilly, for their beliefs, I hope that Cambridge University will recognise the right of Orr to his own politics, by refusing to bow to their incoherent crusade.
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