Any thoughts from current students on the protest that turned violence on campus last week? From the news reports (from sites that include the Boston Globe, NYT and Middelbury’s own press), it sounds like some students physically confronted the speaker and faculty members as they attempted to leave and injured one of the faculty members. That sounds like a lot more than protesting.
Here is a link to the reflections of the speaker who was attacked.
https://www.aei.org/publication/reflections-on-the-revolution-in-middlebury/
The school seems to be in the position of maintaining order (through disciplinary action) or risking a blow to their reputation for being so heterogeneous as to limit critical thinking. Not allowing free speech is sad, but physically intimating and man-handling speakers and administration officials requires action by the schools leadership.
I no longer have to worry about admissions, but I would not support this type of activity with $300k if I were a prospective parent.
There are over 2,500 students at Middlebury, and best estimates are that between 150 and 200 students caused the main disturbance in the student center, and 8-15 individuals (not all of whom were students) engaged in the violent and threatening behavior at the end of the night. Unacceptable to be sure, but try not to paint the entire student body with a single stroke.
At the time, our son was at a lecture, on the Herodotus Diary I believe, and missed the whole thing. The Murray incident was unfortunate on several fronts, to be sure. As Murray spoke on campus ten years ago in the wake of what was by all accounts a more controversial book and was met with a much smaller resistance, one might conclude that there is something different, let’s say, in the air. I doubt the student body has changed that much in a decade. Furthermore, I suspect that those associated with peer institutions are mostly feeling relief that this wasn’t something they had to sort out on their campuses.
To your comment about peer schools, that is perhaps true, but its also surprising how different the vibes for this kind of thing seem to be at the various LAC’s despite a similar political climate. I would venture that had this happened at Wesleyan it might have been at least as volatile; they protested and temporarily defunded the school paper over an op ed submitted by a student last school year. On the other hand, Bowdoin had a student group invite Dinesh D’Souza to speak recently and there was absolutely no controversy or protests let alone an assault or small riot. Personally I would find D’Souza at least as controversial, especially since as you noted the viewpoints that upset the students in Murray’s case where published over 20 years ago and he’s been on the Middlebury campus and probably dozens or more other campuses in all that time since without such a reaction. D’Souza is one of the godfathers of politically motivated fake news, having released entire movies that are fake news before it become de jour during the latest campaign.
How many of the students were disciplined, suspended, or expelled?
@WISdad23 this is a paragraph from a recent letter from President Patton
“The Middlebury community has joined together in condemning the violence that occurred. There are two investigations underway—the College’s independent investigation of the events of March 2 and, second, a police investigation of the incident outside. The student conduct process underway will be fair and just. Federal law requires that the process and individual outcomes remain confidential, except in the case of criminal violence. Our commitment to this process is absolute.”
Hope that helps.
In other words, not much will happen. I watched the entire event on YouTube. Any reasonable person would be able to mete out some swift discipline after watching that without months of “investigation” and bogus due process.