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A Tale of Two Colleges
Student protestors at Middlebury College.
Two colleges. One guest speaker. Two protests that demonstrate why protecting free speech on campus should be a priority for our nation’s lawmakers. Recently, Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve and Coming Apart, found himself at the center of the battle for free speech on college campuses because angry protestors blocked his speech at Middlebury College in Vermont on March 2.
Protestors at Middlebury and elsewhere have called Murray “racist” and a “white nationalist,” accusations that ignore key findings in his research—yet regardless of whether some students disagree with his message, he still has a right to be heard (especially when invited to campus). Murray’s opponents should be heard, too. But neither Murray nor his critics has the right to forcibly silence the other. At Middlebury, Murray had to wade through a mob outside the lecture hall, a mob that assaulted a professor walking beside him and gave her a concussion.
Last week, Murray lectured before students and faculty at the University of Notre Dame, and events transpired differently. The South Bend Tribune says protestors organized outside of the building where Murray spoke and voiced their disapproval. According to the Tribune, students demonstrated but no one was injured, and Murray delivered his presentation in full. The Tribune says a professor of anthropology gave a “fiery formal response” after Murray’s remarks.
Campus lectures at universities across the country have a long and colorful history in the annals of free speech lore. As explained in a report by Stanley Kurtz at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Jim Manley and myself from the Goldwater Institute, university leaders have been concerned with protecting free expression on campus for more than a century. Yale and the University of Chicago are two notable institutions that have released important statements in favor of protecting speech on their campuses, especially when the subjects are hotly contested.
The Kurtz-Goldwater Institute report includes model legislation that applies to public university systems and would allow for protests such as those at Notre Dame last week. Lawmakers in North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, and Illinois, to name a few, are considering bills based on our report. Students should be permitted to organize and have their voices heard, so long as they do not prevent others from doing the same.
Our model bill condemns violations of the First Amendment of the US Constitution and violations of other state or federal ordinances protecting free speech. Furthermore, universities should enact consequences on anyone in the public university system that blocks someone else’s attempt at free speech. Last year, the University of Chicago adopted a policy on campus disruptions that includes similar sanctions. After the Middlebury event, local and national writers also spoke in favor of imposing consequences on violent protestors.
University officials can only promote the free exchange of ideas if students can be assured of physical safety. Though our report only applies to public university systems, the Middlebury episode is an instance where those who physically harmed an individual and disrupted an organized event should be sanctioned. Innocent bystanders should be free to hear someone’s remarks and, when it’s their turn, have their opinions heard—as happened at Notre Dame after Murray’s lecture.
Public university officials should take disciplinary action seriously, and students should be afforded full due process. The university must notify students of the charges, and students should have the opportunity to appeal, as outlined at length in our model bill. Students accused of silencing speech have the right to due process protections, and speakers and innocent bystanders should be protected from harm caused by violent individuals — such processes are fundamental to a civil society.
The events at Middlebury and Notre Dame stand in stark contrast. For the latter event, the free exchange of ideas was a defining feature. The former demonstrates why consequences for destructive behavior are needed to protect the innocent. College communities cannot leave their copies of the Constitution at the campus gates.
Published in General
Yale, overall as in institution, is pretty feeble when it comes to actually backing up its supposed commitments to free speech. I know that historically Yale has played a prominent role in promoting the vigorous exchange of ideas, but that’s out-of-date at this point.
How would the institutions deal with people who show up in masks?
I’m less concerned with guys in masks than I am with unmasked students that basically shut down any speaker they don’t like.
This article reminds me of just how brilliant our Framers of the Constitution were in their hesitation of beginning to list the Bill of Rights . If that isn’t obvious then my argument would be a case and point for my love of country and therefore patriotism . It is frustrating that everything must be spelled out for the undisciplined . Heavy sigh from a civilized choir .
@brianwyneken That’s true, especially in recent years with the Halloween episode. However, Yale’s Woodward report is a model on which we were able to build. And, in part, because the Woodward report wasn’t able to compel Yale to maintain a position in favor of free expression, we wrote our model bill with additional provisions levied from the state through public institutions’ governing boards.
@nancyb I don’t think wearing masks is problematic by itself–depends greatly on what those in masks are doing. If, in the course of a protest, vandals are wearing masks and destroying property, injuring others, or otherwise breaking the law, they would be subject to sanction. Certainly makes their behavior a little more creepy, though.
Why should students and others (there have been crowds of protesters who were not all students) in a closed community be given “due process”? That would mean that the inmates would be running the asylum. Here are the rules. Here are the consequences for breaking the rules. Break the rules, pay the consequences. These riots are all filmed in all their gory detail and broadcast over the airwaves and internet for all to see. If every rioter who disrupted a legitimate lecturer so that they could not give their lecture were expelled immediately, I bet those riots would cease promptly.
I don’t particularly like the idea of a “formal response” – fiery or otherwise. It’s a speech, not a debate or a State of the Union address.
I spoke to a neighbor the other day who was relieved that her child was accepted by Colgate but rejected by Middlebury. She was appalled by the treatment of Charles Murray. (I should add that when my neighbor stopped me in the street to share that information, I was reading a piece about the incident on my phone. It’s certainly on a lot of people’s minds.)
Good going, Middlebury. If they don’t take decisive action, I hope the number of applications plummets.
Cops show up with batons.
Arrest them.
What do you arrest them for?
Given the consistent behaviors we’ve seen from the masked demographic at SJ demonstrations, I don’t think we’d have to wait too long to find out.
Assault and battery. I believe that beating people up is still a crime, even if you disagree with them.
We have a generation being raised to think that rules made up by Black Lives Matter or other one-sided opinion groups are valid. I don’t think they know the definition of Free Speech from the definition of a stump. I imagine if someone did interviews with them across the country, they would not understand our most basic Constitutional liberties. This is a problem, since when they graduate, and go on to work and create families, they won’t have the foundation that creates a free and civil society. There have always been protests, and violent protestors have always been arrested. The speaker is irrelevant. Remember Jane Fonda? She should be out there with a bull horn supporting diverse ideas.