两名哥伦比亚大学学生发表的一篇质疑“康奈尔7人案”的评论文章在校园引发轩然大波——重燃了围绕精英大学言论自由的辩论。
An opinion piece published by two Columbia University students questioning the “Cornell 7” case has sparked an uproar on campus—reigniting debates around free speech at elite universities.
这两名学生辩称，前康奈尔大学学生简·多伊（Jane Doe，化名）称自己于2024年在一场兄弟会派对上遭轮奸一事，情况错综复杂。他们警告不要做“纸上谈兵式的断案”，并表示“值得暂停一下”，在得出结论前三思。他们写道，这或许是一场“合理自愿但事后令人后悔的遭遇”。
What happened to Jane Doe, the former Cornell student who says she was gang-raped at a fraternity party in 2024, was complicated, the Columbia students argued. They warned against “armchair verdicts” and said “it’s worth taking a pause” before jumping to conclusions. Perhaps, they wrote, it was a “reasonably consensual but regrettable encounter.”
“我们认为，这种集体狂热极其无益，无视一切与‘首选’叙事相悖的案件事实，且将女性幼稚化，”大三学生尼科斯·穆罕默迪（Nikos Mohammadi）和克里斯蒂娜·马（Christina Ma）写道。“它还在校园营造出一种氛围，让人难以对发生的事情持有不同于极端立场的观点。”
“We believe that this collective frenzy is deeply unproductive, neglects any and all facts of the case which disagree with the ‘preferred’ narrative, and infantilizes women,” wrote juniors Nikos Mohammadi and Christina Ma. “It has also ushered in a climate on campus in which it is difficult to disagree with the maximalist position on what happened.”Reaction was swift after the Sundial, which calls itself the independent voice of Columbia University, published the piece last week. Multiple Sundial staff members quit in protest, while some circulated a petition calling for the publication to cease operations. Many posts on the campus forum Sidechat characterized the piece as repulsive. Student organizers of a Columbia free-speech alliance canceled a press-freedom event that was set to include the Sundial’s editor in chief—a move that has sparked its own backlash.
自称哥伦比亚大学独立之声的《日晷报》（The Sundial）上周刊发该文后，反应迅速。多名《日晷报》工作人员抗议辞职，还有人发起联署请愿，要求该刊停止运营。校园论坛Sidechat上许多帖子将该文形容为令人作呕。哥伦比亚言论自由联盟的学生组织者取消了一场原定邀请《日晷报》主编参加的新闻自由活动——此举本身又引发了新的反弹。
Defenders of the publication and free-speech advocates argue that the intense response reinforces a common criticism: that many prestigious colleges aren’t hospitable to dissenting views.
该刊的捍卫者和言论自由倡导者认为，这种强烈反应印证了一项常见批评：许多名校对持不同意见的观点并不包容。
“I don’t think there’s been any other campus publication at Columbia who has dared to publish an argument even similar to that one,” said Jonas Du, who graduated last year and founded the Sundial in 2024 to improve campus discourse. “It’s just cancel-culture working.”Columbia drew the ire of conservatives—and President Trump—for what they perceived was liberal groupthink during the Gaza protests. Last year, the university agreed to pay $200 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it failed to protect Jewish students. The deal, and similar ones at other elite schools, prompted vows by university leaders to encourage a range of viewpoints.
“我不认为哥伦比亚大学还有其他校园出版物敢于刊登类似的观点，”乔纳斯·杜说，他去年毕业，2024年创办了《日晷报》，旨在改善校园话语。“这不过是取消文化在起作用。”哥伦比亚大学因在加沙抗议期间被认为存在自由派群体思维，而招致保守派人士和特朗普总统的愤怒。去年，该大学同意向联邦政府支付2亿美元，以和解指控其未能保护犹太学生的指控。这项协议以及其他精英院校的类似协议，促使大学领导人承诺鼓励各种观点。
Columbia’s new president, Jennifer Mnookin, who took over this summer, has called open debate a central part of a university. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was previously chancellor, she launched “deliberation dinners” to promote civil dialogue over hot-button issues.
哥伦比亚大学的新校长珍妮弗·穆诺因今年夏天上任，她将公开辩论称为大学的核心部分。在她此前担任校长的威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校，她发起了“审议晚餐”，以促进就热点问题进行文明对话。
Since the campus encampments, Columbia has been hosting “listening tables,” including one Mnookin participated in this Oct. 7, a spokeswoman said. The school has an “F” grade and ranks near the bottom of the college free-speech rankings by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, though it moved up 10 spots in the iteration released last month.
自校园营地事件以来，哥伦比亚大学一直在举办“倾听桌”，包括穆诺因在10月7日参加的一场，一位发言人表示。该校在言论自由基金会的大学言论自由排名中获得“F”等级，排名靠后，尽管在上个月发布的最新一期排名中上升了10个位置。
“You would expect there to be criticism” of the Sundial article, said Robert Shibley, special counsel for campus advocacy at FIRE. But “nobody is winning among their student body if they can’t have a discussion about one of the main news items of the day that has to do with campus.”A free-speech debate is unfolding at Cornell too, after the school suspended fraternity parties for the rest of the school year. FIRE sent a letter to Cornell’s president urging him to reverse the decision.
“你会预期会有对《日晷报》文章的批评，”言论自由基金会校园倡导特别法律顾问罗伯特·希伯利说。但“如果他们不能就与校园有关的当天主要新闻之一进行讨论，那么就没有人能在学生群体中获胜。”康奈尔大学也在展开一场言论自由辩论，该校暂停了兄弟会聚会，直至本学年结束。言论自由基金会向康奈尔大学校长发信，敦促他撤销这一决定。
The punishment affects fraternity members who weren’t accused of wrongdoing, many of whom weren’t on campus in 2024, said Shibley. It is “guilt-by-association,” and the group argues that the blanket ban lacks tailoring for specific safety concerns.
施比利表示，惩罚影响了那些未被指控不当行为的兄弟会成员，其中许多人在2024年并不在校园内。这是“以势压理式”的连坐，该团体认为，全面禁令缺乏针对特定安全问题的精准设计。
At Columbia, Shoshana Aufzien, a Sundial editor who wasn’t involved with the piece by Mohammadi and Ma, said she strongly disagreed with the article but felt the Sundial had the right to publish it. She thought the backlash was disproportionate.
在哥伦比亚大学，未参与穆罕默迪和马所写文章的《日晷报》编辑舒沙娜·奥夫齐恩表示，她强烈不同意该文章，但认为《日晷报》有权刊登它。她认为反弹反应过度。
The editorial board for the Columbia Political Review, a multipartisan publication, condemned the article, saying it insinuates that blame for rape lies with victims rather than perpetrators. The Columbia Open Discourse Alliance, a campus coalition of political and media organizations that is intended to promote free expression, said the article “promotes rape culture” and silences sexual-assault survivors.
哥伦比亚政治评论的编辑委员会谴责了该文章，称该文章暗示强奸的责任在于受害者而非施暴者。哥伦比亚开放话语联盟——一个旨在促进言论自由的校园政治和媒体组织联盟——表示，该文章“助长强奸文化”并使性侵幸存者沉默。
The Alliance, which was set to host a press-freedom event, said it canceled in part because of safety concerns for panelists and attendees. The event will be rescheduled, said the group’s founder, Aum Desai.
该联盟原计划举办一场新闻自由活动，称部分取消是出于对小组成员和与会者安全的担忧。该联盟创始人奥姆·德赛表示，活动将重新安排。
Some participating organizations, like Columbia Republicans, have since left the free-speech alliance amid the controversy.
一些参与组织，如哥伦比亚大学共和党人，已在争议中退出了言论自由联盟。德赛表示，原定活动将讨论观点多样性在校园舆论报道中的作用。
The original event, Desai said, was set to include discussion about the role of viewpoint diversity in opinion coverage on campus.
在一次采访中，穆罕默迪和马表示，校园的反应证明了他们的观点。“这感觉非常‘元’，因为我们在文章中讨论的正是这一点，”马说。“这一点我们已得到证实，”穆罕默迪补充道。
In an interview, Mohammadi and Ma said the campus reaction has proved their point. “It feels very meta because that was what we were talking about in our article,” Ma said. “We’ve been vindicated on that,” Mohammadi added.