HIGHLY COMMENDED Charmian Walker-Smith – In bed with the enemy
The scandal which renamed the LSE the Libyan School of Economics cut deep. For most of the students on campus the problem was not the funding from Libya when at the time it had diplomatic and trade relations with the UK. No, the accusation that stung most was that Saif al-Islaam Gaddafi could have plagiarised when he studied for his PhD at the school. That betrayed everything the students cherished most about LSE. That it demands excellence and integrity.
You only have to speak to some of the students to appreciate the sacrifices that we have all made to be here. We have given up jobs, left families, travelled half way round the world to live in damp rooms and spend hours in a crowded library. A lot of people comment on how diverse the university is. What is more remarkable is its great unity. Our motto expresses the desire to understand the causes of things. We work hard to come here because of the outstanding reputation that LSE has, or possibly had. Now we have to ask ourselves, how could LSE judge things so badly? Had it not done its homework? Worse, had it sold out?
Walking through the corridors of LSE buildings, pictures of illustrious alumni line the walls. You cannot forget its heritage. People who changed the world came here, pioneering thinkers and a decent smattering of iconoclasts. George Bernard Shaw, JFK, Eugenia Charles. Even in fiction Josiah Bartlett, the president of the US depicted in the West Wing is an old boy. He’s upright, fiercely bright, compassionate, funny and courageous – traits that would probably be true of most of the LSE fraternity.
LSE’s unimpeachable reputation was hard earned, built on enquiring minds demanding rigorous debate. The art of argument and diplomacy runs through every seminar. You can have any political leaning, as long as you are prepared to come open minded. How often do hard headed capitalists and left wing policy wonks break bread together? Not often enough, but it happens frequently at LSE. You are routinely asked to look at any problem from all the angles. The respect and rigour involved in any intellectual battle means we never come to blows. Considering the amount of heated debate going on it is amazing that there isn’t more violence. If anything you normally you go for coffee with your nemesis. It is the best skill you learn: argue well and without falling out with your opponent.
Informed opinion and argument are forces for good. People who disagree get things done, they question everything and work out their differences. Those awkward argumentative types, for all their faults, are the only ones with the capacity to offer olive branches across cultural and academic gulfs.
Apart from anything else arguments (non violent ones at least) are healthy. Beryl Bainbridge claimed “A day without argument is like an egg without salt”. Admittedly the benefits of salt are disputed, you but that aside, recent research the university of Michigan found that women who did not speak their mind during fights were four times more likely to die during the course of the study. An inability to argue is deadly. Hang the obesity crisis; it is apathy that kills.
“Ask a man which way he is going to vote, and he will probably tell you. Ask him, however, why, and vagueness is all.” Bernard Levin once said. Not at LSE. At LSE you can stand for fifty minutes in the rain, with a random person you walked out of your seminar with and know EXACTLY why they will vote for their student rep, their favourite dancing on ice contestant, or their local councillor. It all matters, and sometimes it feels like Houghton Street is the only place where anyone else will care. In a world where argument and discussion is frequently overtaken by popularity contests, we are, and always will be, in the business of asking awkward questions.
In a place like LSE there is no room for plagiarism; it could not be allowed to happen. But we need to find out if it did; we need answers and we’ll have to study the evidence. The LSE might have to battle to restore its reputation but the scars will fade. We will keep on doing what we do best and we will learn the lessons. We will be our own harshest critics, we will row and wrangle and pursue the truth, because it is what we always do.