Campus lessons on free speech
January 30, 2017 at 12:27AM
Hoppy Kercheval
W.Va. Metro NewsThere was a dust up one night last week at West Virginia University between representatives of two opposing student political groups—the Leftist Alliance, which is a self-described “radical leftist collective,” and Turning Point USA, a conservative student group that advocates free markets and limited government.
According to various media reports, including the WVU student newspaper the Daily Athenaeum (DA), several members of Turning Point entered a meeting of the Leftist Alliance at the Mountainlair. Turning Point says they were there to discuss a joint forum, but Kelley Denham, president of the Leftist Alliance, told the DA Turning Point came to the meeting to try to provoke a reaction.
Turning Point member Michael Quinlan says they left, but then Denham confronted them outside the meeting room with a profanity-laced tirade caught on tape. The video shows Denham pushing a member of the group and trying to grab their cell phone while cursing at them.
Nobody was hurt and no charges were filed. You can watch the video here, but be warned the language is graphic.
WVU said in a statement, “West Virginia University continues to stand behind the right of its students, faculty and staff to express their ideas and points of view, but also remains adamant that it be done in a peaceful, civil and respectful manner.”
Okay, so things got a little out of hand, and the video shows Denham acting boorishly. In a more perfect world the students from the opposing groups would have debated and argued, maybe even yelled or insulted each other as they sussed out their differing political views.
At least they are engaged. Unfortunately, college campuses have become shrines of political correctness where self-appointed thought police monitor for micro-aggressions and trigger warnings. Campuses create “safe spaces” where these frail young adults are protected from views that run counter to their own, creating a culture of victimhood.
The result is a chilling effect on debate and discussion. The ACLU, in a post about this trend says, “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects speech no matter how offensive its content. The ACLU believes that all campuses should adhere to First Amendment principles because academic freedom is a bedrock of education in a free society.”
A few weeks ago, Milo Yiannopoulos, the controversial editor of the alt-right website Breitbart News, spoke on the WVU Campus as an invited guest of the College Republicans. Yainnopoulos ripped into a liberal professor who hosted a competing event.
WVU President E. Gordon Gee issued a “Dear Mountaineer Family” letter where he defended the professor and criticized Yiannopoulos, but also supported “the decision to bring a speaker to campus and our community–no matter how controversial. We never want to censor a person’s right to free speech.”
And there is the crux of it – A controversial speaker, a counter demonstration, and the University president weighs in. The answer to contentious or even abhorrent speech is more speech, all flushed out in the marketplace of ideas.
The encounter the other night between the Leftist Alliance and Turning Point USA did not go well, and people are accountable for their actions. But passions are running high these days, and we can expect things to get a little out of hand at times.
Still, if given the choice, an emotional clash of competing ideas is always preferable to the sterilization of thought that threatens to deaden the spirit of intellectual adventure on our college campuses.
Gordon Gee is a bloomin' idiot.
