Defend Academic Integrity: Jordan Peterson and Cambridge University

Under pressure from radical activists Cambridge University has rescinded its offer of a visiting fellowship to Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson. The university's Faculty of Divinity recently offered Professor Peterson a visiting position at the university for two months starting in October. On Wednesday 20 March the university posted on twitter its decision to withdraw the offer. Though the full reasons for this action are unclear, it followed protests against Peterson from the university's student union. The university has subsequently said that Cambridge "is an inclusive environment and we expect all our staff and visitors to uphold our principles. There is no place here for anyone who cannot". But all of Peterson's opinions were of course public knowledge before the Faculty made its fellowship offer, so this explanation is disingenuous.

This action has disgraced the name of a great university. Cambridge has compromised its commitment to intellectual freedom and academic integrity by capitulating to a zeitgeist of authoritarian intolerance created by a small number of ideological bullies. Those zealots repeatedly smear Peterson with lies and half-truths about his opinions. His actual opinions fall well within the bounds of reasonable and proper academic discourse, whether or not one agrees with or approves of them. They have no bearing on his academic standing to be a visitor at Cambridge. As a distinguished psychologist, the author of a major work on the psychology of religion and myth (Maps of Meaning), and the creator of a remarkable series of YouTube lectures on the Bible which has received more than 10 million 'hits', he is amply qualified for the visiting fellowship, a truth attested to by the Faculty itself when it first invited him.

The precedent this action sets is chilling. If a figure as prominent as Professor Peterson can be treated in this way then no academic in the United Kingdom can feel safe to express their opinions. Such actions create an environment of fear, intimidation and conformity that is death to the ideal of intellectual freedom for which the university purports to stand.

Cambridge University should:

(1) Explain the full story behind the original offer to Professor Peterson and its subsequent withdrawal.

(2) Apologise to him for its discourteous behaviour.

(3) Renew the fellowship offer to him on its original terms.