We’re excited to bring you yet a another new column here at blogUT. “We’ve Got Issues” is about… well, issues… that we’ve got! It’ll cover relevant campus/student/university/whatever issues that we find interesting and hope you will too. So leave a comment, discuss; we’d like to know what our readers think.

$5 lunches? Check. Great students? Check. Snazzy glass buildings? Check.

Free speech? … … …

The National Post recently published a letter from our very own Professor Emeritus Phil Sullivan. Together with Clive Seligman from the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship in London, Professor Sullivan cited the University in no uncertain terms as “dropping the ball” when it comes to protecting your right to freedom of expression. The online version of the letter can be found here.

Whether or not the University is bound by the Charter of Rights entails a whole mess of jurisprudence that we won’t get into here. What is clear is that we are a diverse, talented and driven university community – that we are, as the University says, great minds for a great future. Surely the University of Toronto, which houses some of the country’s finest scholars and advocates for the protection of civil liberties, does not mean to deny us exposure to conflicting views, the exchange of ideas, the unpopular dissent that is at the heart of a free western democracy?

I invite your comments about Prof. Sullivan’s letter, and especially welcome comments as to whether you, as a U of T student, feel free to voice your beliefs in our community without fear of reprisal.