Dr. Charles Murray was scheduled to deliver a lecture tonight at Middlebury, followed by a open conversation with faculty member Dr. Allison Stanger. After introductory remarks by others, Murray was prevented from talking by student protesters. The college cancelled the live event and moved Murray to a private room from which they streamed his talk. Students searched through the building trying to find Murray.
Afterwards, Murray tweeted:
“Report from the front: The Middlebury administration was exemplary. The students were seriously scary.”
Obviously neither of you have read any of Murray’s books, and likely not any of his articles in those white supremacist rags like the NY Times, WaPo, or WSJ. That quote about The Bell Curve is a gross over-simplification. And the SPLC? You can’t be serious.
Regardless, does that mean that a segment of the student body should be able to use mob tactics to stop an invited speaker from talking to those who wish to hear him? You don’t regard that as an embarrassment? There was to be a debate-like conversation after his talk with a member of the faculty, and also a Q & A where students who disagree with him could engage him. Don’t these SJW’s have the confidence that their arguments can win the day? I guess not.
I don’t think CC is the place to to criticize SJW’s. But I agree with you that angry snowflakes are a serious detriment to college culture. Feckless college administrators generally do nothing about them.
Before Charles Murray was introduced to the student audience, Middlebury President, Laurie Patton, felt compelled to “state the obvious…we are a left-leaning campus.” (Here’s a link that contains the video of Dr. Murray’s reception: http://www.vdare.com/posts/ultra-preppy-college-shouts-down-charles-murrays-talk-on-coming-apart.) Ms. Patton gave fair warning to students involved in shutting down the speech that doing so was against College policy and could result in suspensions. It will be interesting to see what happens in that regard.
But in general, I prefer umpires (and College Presidents) who call balls and strikes without announcing before the game starts which team they prefer to win.
That said, I commend Middlebury professor Allison Stanger, who from a secret undisclosed location on campus conducted the Charles Murray interview with unbelievable grace. Well perhaps it wasn’t such a well-kept secret as students outside seemed committed to shutting things down anywhere on campus by making as much noise as possible. Both car alarms outside the building and fire alarms within were constantly being set off, which made the live video stream difficult to hear much of the time.
I have a freshman daughter at Midd…a Feb. Thus far, her short experience on campus has been very positive. But to this parent, this whole episode was very disheartening!
Well, at least Middlebury has taught some of their students to write well, even if those students didn’t learn the value of reading or listening to alternative viewpoints.
Here’s the guy who was not allowed to speak: https://www.aei.org/publication/charles-murray-on-allegations-of-racism/
Believe it or not, there are opinions that are not coincident with those of Paul Krugman and/or the SLPC that are held by intelligent decent people. But Murray’s been labeled by the cognoscenti, and on that basis many in the Middlebury community have decided it’s verboten to let him speak.
The only way Middlebury can recover from this is to find the perpetrators and hold them to account for assaulting the professor and for any other violations of school regulations or law.
Notably, Mr. Murray and Professor Stanger were physically attacked as they were LEAVING the campus, or at least attempting to do so. This act was not perpetrated to prevent ‘hate speech’ or to protect the (permanently) aggrieved from further torment. It was to punish Mr. Murray for his thoughts and written work, and to punish Ms. Stanger for her temerity to participate in the attempt to present this talk.
In defense of Middlebury – it’s been reported that the assault on Murray and Stanger was committed by “masked outside agitators”, and not by Middlebury students. Even so, Middlebury lost control of the situation well before this point. The disruption of Murray’s talk violates the school’s conduct policy. With the video readily available it would be easy to identify the students involved. Will the administration do anything about it? We’ll see.
The students involved in the assault should be disciplined by the school and prosecuted – a hard lesson in manners, but a necessary one apparently. I’m sure they pretend to support free speech when their leftist friends are the subject, but acts like this show their hypocrisy.
Side note: The Southern Poverty Law Center is hardly a centrist/unbiased organization. They aren’t alone in this judgment, of course, but relying on their opinion is just as fraught with natural objection as it is with most any other group.
It’s both disturbing and disappointing that the protesters opted for dismissive and violent behavior when they could have chosen the harder route of listening and responding with intellectual honesty. This moment, however, presents a tremendous opportunity for difficult dialogue if the community is willing to engage. Free speech can be messy even hurtful, and those voices you don’t agree with or that you find offensive don’t just go away because you get to shut them up. In a war of ideas, dialogue and conversation are the only way forward if violence is to be avoided.
I know President Patton gets this. Over the past two years she has been at Middlebury she constantly reminds anyone who listens that the work of a liberal arts community is to engage in difficult conversations no matter how uncomfortable they make people feel. I hope the administration has the strength to see this through, and that they hold those who broke rules accountable for their behavior. In the end this is an excellent learning opportunity for the community. Just hoping they take advantage of it.
These two articles come directly from the campus community. The first is from an Iranian religious prof (who incidentally was caught up in the travel ban trying to return from Iran last month) and the second is from a blog written by a current Middlebury student.
It is appalling to me that the students involved in the worst of it would not be expelled immediately without a tear. If they go the Missouri route they will scapegoat a professor and fire him.
Murray has been trying to rehabilitate himself among the eastern seaboard establishment, which I think is where his sentimental and intellectual heart lies, for over twenty years now. I did read “The Bell Curve” when it came out. The time was ripe for a mix of race, class, IQ and statistics clearly calculated to provoke and, frankly, if Murray hadn’t written it, some other “enterprising” young person on the margins of academia probably would have. The formula was simple: blur the line as much as possible between correlation and causation, step back, and watch the fun. He is living proof that you can make a very tidy living on the talk circuit by denying you ever said something most people think you did.