Freedom of speech at Middlebury?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Middlebury College
1

This is a difficult, controversial topic, and I hope we are able to stay away from politics and discuss this in a thoughtful manner.

I have read about a recent event at Middlebury where a socially conservative speaker (a Polish professor named Ryszard Legutko, who’d been invited to talk about his recent book, The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Tendencies in Free Societies), was suddenly dis-invited after student protest and uproar. Following this, school administrators "apologized to the students for their feelings of discomfort, agreed that they had every right to feel aggrieved, and assured them there’s steps underway to ensure controversial right-wing speakers are not easily invited to campus in the future,” to quote the source, which you can find easily enough on the internet.

I have to be honest, this frightens me. Whatever you may think of his viewpoint, Mr. Legutko appears to be a legitimate academic (at least on this specific subject) and not a rabble-rouser out to inflame tensions or incite hatred, anger, or even violence (let me know if I’m wrong). Midd is high on my daughter’s list of schools to apply to next fall, and I am torn as to whether to try to convince her to remove it based on what I am reading. Without getting into politics (hopefully), I am curious as to whether anyone thinks my concerns are overblown and also if this would impact you or your child’s college decision.

I’m also curious to know to what extent this sort of event (i.e., school administrations cancelling speaker appearances due to anger of student groups) is becoming commonplace. My daughter is focused on LACs, and recently I’ve been encouraging her to apply to Oberlin as a “more likely” acceptance (can’t use the word “safety” any more), but now I am rethinking it based on Oberlin’s reputation, even though this story obviously doesn’t involve Oberlin. I’ve been assuming that, with all these LACs, such stories are overstated–how could such well-regarded schools act so, well, close-minded, and allow the students to dictate the boundaries of academic thought at their institution?–but I now understand that I may have been wrong, and they may be more common and more frequent than I’d like to believe. How prevalent is this today? Is it just at certain schools, or are such freedom-of-speech issues arising across all LACs? Basically: Is this something to worry about?

2

Here’s an article for anyone wanting more info on the situation:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/18/middlebury-calls-lecture-conservative-polish-leader-amid-threats-protests

3

Note that media outlets, especially right-leaning ones, will focus in on certain incidents like these and sensationalize them. They won’t write about all the times conservative speakers spoke on campus without anyone stopping them—that wouldn’t make for a story. Rather, they tend to overblow a handful of events.

It’s also important to note that the loudest voices on campus may not be the most common; I’d bet that most students at top schools like Middlebury are more politically apathetic.

If you do surface-level research, you will find that this sort of stuff has happened at nearly every elite school, whether it’s a LAC or university. For example, even at Claremont McKenna, which is a bit more conservative and has been praised for protecting free speech, students several years ago forced a dean to resign due to something she wrote in an email about students who don’t “fit the CMC mold”. At Yale, students protested against a professor who said that it’s ok for Halloween costumes to be a bit offensive.

I’m not doing those stories justice, but I hope you get the general gist. Legutko himself is someone who has called LGBT people tyrannical, saying that most people think gay marriage is a “stupid experiment”. His book in question is implying that the demon in democracy is leftism. Should his talk have been cancelled? No, I wouldn’t say so—in fact, that wasn’t the original intent of Middlebury protesters. But he is a provocateur to a certain extent.

I apologize for the long post, but basically I want to say that a single inflammatory protest at an elite school is absolutely not a good reason to not apply; then you would start finding yourself taking off every school from the list, save for a few.

Here’s an article from a campus newspaper before the cancellation:
https://middleburycampus.com/44323/news/college-braces-for-right-wing-speaker-accused-of-homophobia/

And here’s one addressing the warped and distorted image of Middlebury that right-wing media sources are portraying:
https://middleburycampus.com/44702/news/right-wing-media-jumps-on-free-speech-controversy-again/

4

IMO the issue you’re raising is bigger, broader, and older than you’re describing.
For better or worse, virtually no college in the USA is devoted exclusively to the life of the mind and free academic inquiry. This has always been true.

Middlebury probably isn’t very different in this respect than most peer colleges, notwithstanding one or two incidents that became newsworthy. I don’t see how an incident like the one involving Charles Murray at Middlebury is guaranteed never to happen at Hamilton, Bowdoin, or one of the Ivies. On balance, Middlebury is still a very good college in a gorgeous setting, with some really excellent programs. You can expect it to attract students who care passionately about many things, including politics (along with many others who prefer to quietly focus on academics or their social lives.)

The best way to address your concerns (regardless of where you wind up) may be by carefully choosing your major, courses, instructors, activities, and friends. Ultimately, your own college experience to a great extent will be what you make it.

5

If you’re concerned about free speech on campus in general, FIRE is a good resource.

https://www.thefire.org/10-worst-colleges-for-free-speech-2019/

https://www.thefire.org/schools/middlebury-college/

6

Thanks for your thoughtful responses. To be clear, I have no objection to a good, non-violent student protest. Heck, leave out the “student” part. Protest is a healthy part of democracy. I know you all know this; I just articulate it to further explain my viewpoint about this.

And you’re correct–the goal of this protest was not to stop the talk (although the language the protesters used in the days leading up to the talk was a bit over the top). When I was a student, there was a protest about a speaker I remember well. The speaker was not prevented from speaking, and he was challenged in the Q&A portion of his talk, which was very enlightening. I myself walked out of my law school graduation ceremony as a form of protest (in my case, because of the speech of our class president, which I felt was out of line and didn’t represent my views). So I’m cool with protest.

What concerns me here, though, is the reaction of the administration.

I don’t know whether we’re allowed to paste links, and don’t want to violate the community rules, so I’ll just paste a short quote from the same article (from a site called quillette, if anyone wants to find it), which was written by a student who was present.

The student writes, in part:

"The response of the administrators was an endless expression of sympathy and guilt, as well as pledges to make things right. The students actually demanded that the administrators take notes. And like an obedient underling, one of the professors whipped out her phone to record every demand (all of which were subsequently published in manifesto form).

The three faculty members spoke openly about their desire to block speakers with certain viewpoints from coming to campus, and discussed plans for an extensive background-check scheme that would allow Middlebury officials to systematically analyze speakers beforehand [. . . ]

After about an hour, three more college officials entered the room, and students again jumped up to the whiteboard to list their demands . . . I was stunned by the realization that the school was no longer run according to any coherent set of ideas set down by the administration, but rather by the knee-jerk diktats of a small group of radicalized students operating in open alliance with like-minded staffers."

That’s what bothers me–the fact that a small group of students is apparently able to dictate who may speak on campus, with (apparently) the support of school administrators.

1 Like
7

A student view from the inside.

https://quillette.com/2019/04/27/what-i-saw-at-middlebury-college/

The three faculty members spoke openly about their desire to block speakers with certain viewpoints from coming to campus, and discussed plans for an extensive background-check scheme that would allow Middlebury officials to systematically analyze speakers beforehand. I recorded all of this because I’m passionate about free speech—and I felt it was my duty to show other students that members of their own administration were explicitly advocating for a system that would allow them to restrict speech on campus in accordance with their own privately held biases.
*

8

I see the administration listening to students. Students pay $1000s for speakers in their tuition and fees. Administration should listen to students (at my university administration barely listens to faculty, let alone students). Middlebury has, in the past, punished student protesters. They may be trying to rebuild positive relationships on campus.

On a similar note, the speaker supports discrimination against gays. This is not an appropriate message in the 21st Century. I would not want my money supporting hate speech. Would you? I would be comfortable sending my children to a campus where the students support human rights.

9

LACs are in a tough position because one of their major selling points is how close and personal their student bodies are. I’m not aware of a single protest - correct me, if I’m wrong - anywhere, involving the Second Amendment right to carry a firearm, reducing marginal income tax rates, or even withdrawing from the Paris climate accords, to name a few run-of-the-mill, conservative causes. But, the minute a speaker is perceived as being anti-LBGTQ or less than welcoming of racial or religious minorities, they are touching a raw nerve; you are almost daring students to mount a protest in order to prove they are not anti-gay or racist in the eyes of their fellow students.

10

It’s huge everywhere, not just at Middlebury. Freedom of Speech itself is being denounced by some student activists, who believe it gives cover to racists and bigots.

It is unfortunate because it is not the powerful who benefit most from robust freedom of speech protections, but rather the less powerful minorities in the society.

And a mob mentality has taken hold, where anyone deviating even slightly from a political orthodoxy is shouted down.

A group of students at another top college just encountered a protesting group at a student government meeting because they were proposing a pro-Israel group. The student government listened to the protestors, and the pro-Israel group is believed to be possibly the first proposed student group ever in the college’s recorded history to be voted down and not to be “recognized” by the student government as a campus group.

So no, I do not think you need discourage your daughter from applying to Middlebury specifically, just because some of their incidents got more press. The type of student protests described at Middlebury are happening at colleges all across America.

Your child will face some choices, wherever she goes to college. There may be times she chooses to stay quiet and away from the drama and proceed with her life, and you will want to reinforce for her that that is okay, and that she does not always need to be the one to take a stand. There may be times she agrees with a protest and joins it. There may be times she speaks quietly for or against a protest within her friend group, or quietly supports a friend who is coming under fire for being more vocal. And there may be times she speaks out bravely, as a voice standing up against the crowd for what she thinks is right, and you will be fiercely proud.

11

Hello @mamalion , you raise an important point. No, I wouldn’t want my money supporting hate speech. Which is why, in my opening post, I included the sentence, “Whatever you may think of his viewpoint, Mr. Legutko appears to be a legitimate academic (at least on this specific subject) and not a rabble-rouser out to inflame tensions or incite hatred, anger, or even violence (let me know if I’m wrong).” If the subject of his talk was discrimination against gays–I’d be all for not allowing him to speak; there’s no social benefit to a lecture on such nonsense. But that wasn’t what he was there to talk about. I’m against the idea of vetting individuals on other grounds to determine if they should have the privilege to speak. We could just as easily be discussing a former politician who was once convicted of a white-collar crime, or a porn star that some students object to.

Again, I’m just raising questions. Perhaps the administration is listening to students–but perhaps, also, they are listening to a small group of students, and putting their interests over the rest of the community, who may have been interested to hear what this man had to say, even if as a skeptical, critical observer.

@tpike12 --that’s the article I’m quoting from.

12

As I think about campus protests of speakers, I am having trouble understanding them as anti-free speech. Free speech is a negative human right. That is, it is a right that says no to the government. In the case of college speakers, the government or administration has taken student money and forced the speech. In effect the speech is government speech, not the free-speech promised to the people. The power dynamic is different than the negative right, the right promised in the constitution.

This is why I have a great tolerance of student protests. They may occasionally be flawed, but student protest represents the great American consciousness of the need to speak back to (perceived) injustice.

13

Not in agreement with raising opines here. Seems to be another forum for that.

14

@RayManta We do not know what the speaker would have said. Speakers have a great deal of freedom once they have the podium. I’m a bit cynical when a classical (Plato) philosopher becomes an expert on contemporary politics and attacks gays, women, and Africans. His book is not with a university press. A quick google is very telling https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Legutko

I think Better and Better of the protests. Smart kids at Middlebury

15

I have not read the entire thread, but I think that it is fair to note that there are two types of protest which commonly arise regarding those who speak on controversial topics or speakers who are controversial.

The two types of protest are:

Protests aiming to silence the speaker &

Protests which aim to present a different point of view.

1 Like
16

IMO the students protesting Jeff Sessions at Amherst handled it well. A large group was seated, then quietly got up and left the room 10 minutes into his remarks. He continued for the students who wanted to hear what he had to say and the protest continued outside, without shutting him down. Challenging a speaker in the room, if done well, can also be effective.

I’d love to see some protests or outrage over the lack of freedom of speech at schools like Liberty, BYU, etc, but there doesn’t seem to be all that many who care.

17

No one has a problem with students peacefully protesting, it is part of the American tradition.

On the other hand, some students may be very interested in a classical philosopher’s perspective on current politics. Or perhaps students that disagree with the speaker want an opportunity to engage with the speaker to challenge and discuss his ideas.

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say ‘You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, and who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.’

-President Shepherd
*

18

Respecting the right of Nazis to march in Skokie is different than being forced to pay them.

19

Student activity fees are used for all kinds of purposes, some that an individual student is interested in and supports, others that they do not. They are all forced to pay for some activities they don’t want or use.

College campuses should always err on the side of more speech rather than less speech.

20

This issue of “intolerance” seems to be more prevalent on LAC campuses.