Multiple University of Exeter societies, such as Be the Change, Feminist Society and Labour Society among others, have written an open letter to the Freedom Society, criticising their recent event entitled ‘Daddy Issues: The Crisis of Fatherlessness’.

The event by Albert Dalan was held on 10 November at Old Timers Wine Bar and Restaurant. It focused on ‘a devastating diagnosis of our modern crisis of fatherlessness’ which is believed to have arisen due to ‘around 20 per cent of children grow[ing] up without [a father]’. This in turn was said to have caused unspecified ‘dangerously negative effects on many lives and most importantly, society’.

In response to this event, ‘An Open Letter to Freedom Society’ has heavily criticised the Freedom Society’s choice of topic. The letter states a belief that the event was ‘damaging to the university’s ethos of inclusion and diversity’ and called on the Freedom Society to ‘outline [their] reasoning behind’ the supposed ‘dangerous negative effects on society’.

The letter states a belief that the event was ‘damaging to the university’s ethos of inclusion and diversity’

The letter goes on to illustrate that many members of the signatory societies ‘have been raised solely by [their] mothers’ and ‘feel empowered by this, not impeded’. It ends with an urge to the Freedom Society to ‘reconsider the contents of this event’ and ‘to issue an apology in light of the hurt caused by this’.