by Philip Kitcher
Students and neighbors are suing the school [Columbia], magnifying the broader complaint that institutions stifle free expression when they restrict access to public spaces following protests. —The New York Times, March 27, 2025
The locals used to wander through.
No obstacles. They’d pass
the open
The locals used to wander through.
No obstacles. They’d pass
the open
gates. They’d spend an hour or two
kicking a ball, or lying on the grass.
No student ID was required,
no need to fear
they were unwelcome. Young ones were inspired
to think they’d study here.
Now it’s a fortress. Honeyed words can’t stem
the nagging fear
that higher education’s not for them:
they are intruders here.
Officials at the shuttered gates divide
the privileged from neighbors. Must they feel
that they are destined to remain outside?
Can wounds inflicted daily ever heal?
kicking a ball, or lying on the grass.
No student ID was required,
no need to fear
they were unwelcome. Young ones were inspired
to think they’d study here.
Now it’s a fortress. Honeyed words can’t stem
the nagging fear
that higher education’s not for them:
they are intruders here.
Officials at the shuttered gates divide
the privileged from neighbors. Must they feel
that they are destined to remain outside?
Can wounds inflicted daily ever heal?
Philip Kitcher has written too many books about philosophy, a subject which he taught at Columbia for many years. His new book The Rich and the Poor (Polity Press) is all about the costs of abandoning morality in politics and public life. His poems have appeared online in Light, Lighten Up Online, Politics/Letters, Snakeskin, and The Dirigible Balloon; and in print in the Hudson Review.
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