Went to a talk at UT Austin last month and watched a student get shut down for asking about abortion funding

The speaker was giving a presentation on campus health services. A girl raised her hand and asked if student fees cover abortions. The moderator literally said "we're not taking questions about that" and moved on. About 40 people in the room, nobody said a word. Has anyone else seen this kind of thing happen at a public university?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice2421mo ago

Honestly I used to think things like this were overblown, but seeing it happen in real time changed my mind. I went to a public university and always figured people could ask whatever they wanted, but that's clearly not the case. It's wild to me that a simple question about where student fees go gets shut down like that, especially at a place that's supposed to be about open discussion. I'm not even super political, but it feels like we're losing the ability to just talk about stuff without someone deciding it's off limits. That silence from the room says a lot too, like nobody wants to rock the boat.

sage_morgan751mo ago

@alice242 I see where you're coming from, but I'm not sure this is about shutting down discussion. Sometimes what sounds like a simple question carries a lot of baggage, and the person running the meeting might just be trying to keep things on track. That silence might be people being careful, not scared.