[user104658]

Voluntary segregation is not apartheid; this would only come into play where guest speakers have requested it and University is not school... attendance of these sorts of events is purely optional. It's self-guided study - you go along if it interests you. If you don't like the guest speaker's seating plan, then don't attend his speaking event. If no one attends his event, then he will not be booked to speak again. Simple as that, really.

Essentially, there are only two reasons that someone would be attending such an event. The first being that they feel like they will identify with or agree with the speaker, the second is for purely educational purposes. If the latter, first hand experience of such segregation in action is a valuable learning experience in itself - you are in a stronger position to argue against something if you have actually experienced it.


If this starts being suggested or enforced in day-to-day lectures or seminars, then we have a problem. As it stands, it would be more restrictive of social freedoms to expressly disallow a speaker at an optional event to put a seating plan in place than it would be to say;

It's their event, they can run it how they want to, and you are free to do what you want with that. You could refuse to attend, you could stage a demonstration outside the lecture theatre itself at the time, you could attend the lecture and speak up...

THAT is what a University education is about. Not moaning and whining and asking the "people in charge" to "ban stuff".