The Times - UK (2021-11-10)

the times | Wednesday November 10 2021 2GM 5

News

A playwright, historian and academics
are founding a “free-speech” university
that has recruited Professor Kathleen
Stock.
The University of Austin in Texas is
being created by the historian and
former Sunday Times columnist Profes-
sor Niall Ferguson and David Mamet,
author of Glengarry Glen Ross, with
advisers including the cognitive scien-
tist Professor Steven Pinker and the
economist Professor Larry Summers.
Stock, a philosopher who was forced
to quit her job at Sussex University last
month by protesters who accused her of
transphobia, said this week that she
would join the university but would not
be moving to America.
The university hopes to launch a “for-
bidden courses” summer schedule fol-
lowed by its first graduate programme
next year in entrepreneurship and lead-
ership, with undergraduate courses
starting in 2024. Pinker said: “Universi-
ties have ploughed into a rut: sky-high
tuition, blooming bureaucracy, bizarre
admissions, political monoculture, re-
pression of inquiry and speech.”
The university website said it was

the 83rd anniversary of Kristallnacht,

Zahawi said: “I would expect our great

seats of learning like Oxford to be quite

capable of dealing with these issues in

an appropriate and sensitive way.” He

added that it was “incredibly impor-

tant” for universities to “carry the confi-

dence of the student body”.

“Let me be very clear. Antisemitism is

not simply a historic debate, it is a

present danger and a scourge that ex-

ists, sadly, on our campuses. It is really

important that universities take this

very seriously, which is why the IHRA

[International Holocaust Remem-

brance Alliance] is so crucial as a tool

for universities and other public bodies

in rooting out antisemitism.”

Figures to be released today by the

Office for Students show that 95 uni-

versities have signed up to the IHRA

definition of antisemitism, up from 28

last September.

“I think universities have a duty to

protect the safety of their Jewish

students and make sure they are never

targeted because of their religion or

race,” Zahawi said.

The mother of an injured caver rescued
after 57 hours in Britain’s deepest cave
system has praised volunteers from
across the country who she said had
saved his life.
George Linnane, 38, an engineer
from Bristol, broke his leg, jaw and
breastbone in Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, in
the Brecon Beacons, after he stepped
on a loose boulder and fell down a shaft
at 1pm on Saturday.
Sally Linnane-Hemmens, his
mother, set up a fundraising page for
the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue
Team to thank them for leading the
operation. “It’s been a horrendous
time,” she wrote on social media.
“These guys, along with several other
cave rescue teams from across the UK
saved my son’s life today. They are all
volunteers and need every penny.”
A friend of Linnane’s said he was
experienced, “hard as nails” and known
for being a reliable caver.
“He doesn’t take risks,” they said.
“Throughout the rescue George was
very stoic; that’s the kind of person he is.
He’s got a huge amount of experience in
cave exploration and has qualified as an
underground diver as well.”
A fellow caver in Linnane’s group
raced to the surface after his fall and
raised the alarm at 2.10pm. More than
300 volunteers from ten cave rescue
groups answered a nationwide call for
help and worked around the clock in
shifts of up to 12 hours underground.
The South and Mid Wales team said
that Linnane’s serious injuries and his
location deep underground “resulted in
the longest stretcher carry in British
cave rescue history”.
As he received treatment while slow-
ly being carried out, Linnane could not
avoid the good-natured ribbing of
friends who came down to help him. On
hearing the news of his rescue, Louis
Phelps, a friend, asked on Facebook:
“Now how long do we have to wait
before he gets some stick?” Michael
Thomas replied: “Mate, the first thing
he got from me in the [cave] streamway
was stick, making me go down [the]
bloody Dim Dwr entrance to reach
him.”
Christine Grosart said she had

Explain Mosley decision to

Jewish students, Oxford told

Kieran Gair

Academic joins free-speech college

being based in Austin because Texas

was experiencing a historic boom in tal-

ent and capital. “Austin, in particular, is

a hub for builders, mavericks and crea-

tors — the kind of people our university

aims to attract and from whom we want

to receive guidance. We are alarmed by

the illiberalism and censoriousness

prevalent in America’s most prestigious

universities and what it augurs for the

country. But we know that there are

enough of us who still believe in the

core purpose of higher education, the

pursuit of truth.

“At each stage of the construction of

our university... we shall ask ourselves:

‘Are we serving the pursuit of know-

ledge?’ If the answer is no, then it will

not have a place at our university.”

Dr Peter Kanelos, the former presi-

dent of St John’s College, a liberal arts

college in Maryland, will be the presi-

dent. “Over a third of conservative aca-

demics and PhD students say they had

been threatened with disciplinary

action for their views,” he said. “On our

quads, faculty are being treated like

thought criminals. Kathleen Stock re-

signed after mobs threatened her over

her research on sex and gender.

“We had thought such censorious-

ness was possible only under oppress-

ive regimes in distant lands. But it turns

out that fear can become endemic in a

free society. It can become most acute

in the one place — the university —

that is supposed to defend the right to

think the unthinkable.”

Kanelos said the university would

bring together journalists, artists, phi-

lanthropists, researchers and public in-

tellectuals. “We are a dedicated crew

that grows by the day. Our backgrounds

and experiences are diverse; our polit-

ical views differ. What unites us is a

common dismay at the state of modern

academia and a recognition that we can

no longer wait for the cavalry. And so

we must be the cavalry.”

The university says it will offer a cur-

riculum designed with “founders of

daring ventures” and “dissidents who

stood up to authoritarianism”.

Nicola Woolcock Education Editor

The education secretary has said that

Oxford University should explain to

Jewish students why it accepted money

from the charitable fund set up by the

son of the British fascist Oswald Mos-

ley, it was reported last night.

Nadhim Zahawi said that the uni-

versity must “consult and explain the

decision-making process” with the in-

stitution’s Jewish students as he warned

that antisemitism was “a present

danger and a scourge” on British cam-

puses, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The Alexander Mosley Charitable

Trust was established by Max Mosley,

the youngest son of the leader of the

British Union of Fascists, and commem-

orates his own son Alexander, who died

of a suspected drug overdose in 2009.

Zahawi’s intervention in the funding

row comes after it emerged that Oxford

University had accepted more than

£12.3 million in donations from the

Mosley family trust.

Speaking from Auschwitz, where he

was visiting Nazi death camps before

Professor Kathleen

Stock was accused

of transphobia and

forced to quit

“bollocked him” for ruining plans they

had. Michal Poreba joked: “I hear he

might lose his newly gained [qualified

diver] status for diving without water...

and he was told that while still under-

ground.” Friends said Linnane was

laughing at the jokes.

Last night his girlfriend, who asked

not to be named, said she was grateful

to the rescuers.

With up to 70 people underground at

any time, passing Linnane along

a human chain, he was

brought to the surface at

7.45pm on Monday.

One elated rescuer

was heard telling him

“well done George”

as he was passed

through a guard of

honour to a waiting

Land Rover. He was

clapped and cheered

before being taken to

University Hospital of

Wales in Cardiff. His condi-

tion is unclear.

Linnane was praised for managing to

speak. Paul Taylor, chairman of Glou-

cester Cave Rescue Group, said Linna-

ne’s broken jaw and leg made it “very

obvious this was going to be a very long

and big rescue”.

“But he was brilliant,” Taylor said.

“Despite a very bad jaw he was able to

speak and keep talking throughout.”

During the 54 hours that rescue

teams were with him, Linnane was

strapped to a stretcher that had to be

floated across a deep underground

stream system and rescuers had to

swim alongside him.

To avoid a narrow twisting section of

the cave system known as Maypole, his

stretcher was then attached to ropes

and hauled 25m up a cave shaft.

Steve Thomas, of South and Mid

Wales Cave Rescue Team, said that vol-

unteers had worked to keep morale

high. “There’s always a draught

in caves, so there’s a chill fac-

tor and it doesn’t take long

to sap you,” he told the

BBC. “To keep our spir-

its up we all have little

treats in our helmets.

It’s a very friendly en-

vironment.”

Thomas said the

rescuers were all “

per cent keen” through-

out the ordeal. “Nobody

complained about any-

thing they had to do,” he said.

“A lot of it involved lying in water

with a stretcher being pulled over the

top of you, and nobody said no. Every-

body just did what they had to do. We’re

all part of the same team.”

He added that caving was not a reck-

less pursuit. “It’s no more dangerous

than anything else. To be honest I think

it’s more dangerous to sit on the sofa

watching TV,” he said.

Yesterday cavers were clearing up the

kit and oxygen tanks left behind.

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George Linnane, 38, broke his leg, jaw and breastbone. He was passed out of

Ogof Ffynnon Ddu via a human chain during a rescue involving 300 volunteers

Injured caver joked with rescuers

Will Humphries
Southwest Correspondent

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