The University of Cambridge decided that they didn't want to host conservative Professor Jordan Peterson again. The university announced on Twitter Wednesday that they rescinded the invitation, “after a further review.”
Jordan Peterson requested a visiting fellowship at the Faculty of Divinity, and an initial offer has been rescinded after a further review.
— Faculty of Divinity (@CamDivinity) March 20, 2019
The Daily Caller reported that in October, Peterson was supposed to begin a visiting fellowship at the university divinity school. As of Thursday, the university didn’t provide a statement detailing why they made their decision.
According to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the university told them that Peterson doesn’t fit their “inclusive environment.”
“[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,” the spokesperson said.
The anonymous spokesperson wasn’t the only one who expressed distaste towards Peterson’s politics. Dr. Priyamvada Gopal, a member of the Faculty of English, made sarcastic quips toward the professor. She also condemned him for his skin color.
Jordan Peterson to be my colleague later this year? So EXCITED. So much to learn, so much wisdom to glean. Well done, Cambridge, no better way to signal our commitment to diversity and decolonization. pic.twitter.com/M8fALoMfVY
— Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) March 20, 2019
The truth is Cambridge just doesn't have enough sage authoritative white men who believe they know better than everyone else and can tell the world how to run itself. We need to ship them in from outside.
— Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) March 20, 2019
Cambridge defended Gopal in the past for her critiques of colonialism and said they look to uphold her freedom of speech.
Statement from the University's Head of the School of Arts & Humanities on Dr Priya Gopal. pic.twitter.com/gP1xViE5EI
— Cambridge University (@Cambridge_Uni) April 13, 2018
The faculty aren’t the only ones pitting themselves against Peterson. The Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU), not to be confused with the Cambridge Union, said that they were relieved to hear that Peterson was disinvited.
CUSU, a, “representative body for all 20,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the University of Cambridge,” stated on their website that they plan to shrink in size because students felt unrepresented by them.
“Our consultations showed that students felt removed from and unrepresented by CUSU Council and wanted to see it talking more about academic and college level issues rather than making grand political stances,” the CUSU wrote in February. “However, history has shown that no matter how much we try, these issues don’t get put as motions to Council. The current structure therefore doesn’t provide much opportunity to discuss these key issues and so we’ve decided to devolve!”
Peterson pointed out that CUSU announced Cambridge’s decision to disinvite him minutes before the university did it themselves.
“CUSU, the Cambridge University Student Union (not to be confused with the aforementioned Cambridge Union), pinned to their Twitter account the rescindment announcement three minutes before (!) the Faculty of Divinity did so, and in a spirit of apparent ‘relief,’” he wrote.
The university have released the following statement regarding Jordan Peterson being a visiting fellow in the Divinity faculty:
— CUSU (@CUSUonline) March 20, 2019
"We can confirm that Jordan Peterson requested a visiting fellowship, and an initial offer has been rescinded after a further review."
Peterson’s past visit to the Cambridge Union garnered nearly 500,000 views on YouTube and stands as one of the Cambridge Union’s most popular videos on their channel.
“It seems to me that the packed Cambridge Union auditorium,” Peterson said about the panel. “The intelligent questioning associated with the lecture, and the overwhelming number of views the subsequently posted video accrued, indicates that there a number of Cambridge students are very interested in what I have to say, and might well regard my visit ‘as a valuable contribution to the University.’”
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