With great shock and even greater sadness I read media accounts of protestors disrupting a recent presentation at Washington College in Chestertown.
The presentation featured Dr. Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. While Professor George has deeply held conservative beliefs which he does not shy away from expressing, he is also a frequent conversation partner with Cornel West, a progressive professor and political activist. They have appeared together at colleges and universities around the country, arguing for civil dialogue and a broad conception of campus freedom of speech as essential to the truth-seeking mission of academic institutions. Of his longtime friend West has said — “Robby and I struggle over many issues, but at the deepest human level, it’s hard to find anyone with his kind of integrity and genuine concern for others.”
Progressive Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has said this about Professor George — “He is one of the nation’s most respected legal theorists and the respect he has gained is due to his sheer brilliance, the analytic power of his arguments, the range of his knowledge, a deeply principled conviction, and a profound and enduring integrity.”
No stranger to threats of bodily harm, Professor George was once targeted with death threats for views on abortion.
So how was Professor George treated during his presentation at Washington College? Extremely poorly is an understatement.
The protesters at his presentation did not quietly carry signs and engage in civil dialogue with Professor George following his remarks. Instead, media at the event reported the following: “The protesters marched in, with campus security allowing them passage. Shouting from the protesters started right away, breaking up the professor’s talk.” The media also reported the protesters waved flags, waved signs, blew whistles, played music, and danced. They did not stand down until Professor George’s presentation ended prematurely and he [George] was escorted from the room.
After this shameful treatment Professor George observed that in all his years visiting numerous colleges and universities including Berkeley, Yale, and Harvard (hardly bastions of conservatism), he never had this happen before. After this event, he observed that “When intimidation works, they’ll continue to do it,”
Indeed, they will. Intimidation at this event did work and there is no reason to believe the protestors will not do it again with anyone who does not embrace their views or asks them to consider other views.
That being the case the following questions need to be addressed by the leadership of Washington College.
What has been or will be the college’s response to the protestors willful disregard for the following Washington College core values? “We share these values of our founding patron, George Washington: integrity, determination, curiosity, civility, leadership, and moral courage. We develop in our students’ habits of analytic thought and clear communication, aesthetic insight, ethical sensitivity, and civic responsibility.
What has been or will be the college’s response to the following comment by one protestor at the event after an email was sent to all students reminding them that it would be a violation of the Student Honor Code to disrupt a speaker? “Are you going to tell me that WAC (Washington College) can expel every single one of us? Absolutely (expletive) not!”.
Why did campus security decide not to intervene with timely and appropriate steps to deal with the protesters well before their disruptive behavior resulted in a premature end of the event?
Post event a college spokesperson said, “the protesters took issue with homophobic and transphobic statements that Professor George has made in the past.” Is the spokesperson implying that Washington College agrees with the protester’s interpretations of and opinions on statements made by Professor George in the past?
How committed is Washington College to free speech, civil discourse, and ensuring students are exposed to a wide range of views that may challenge how they think and what they think?
One can hope that going forward Washington College will walk their talk on their core principles and student honor code to help ensure this recent tyranny of the loud will never happen again.
David Reel is a public affairs/public relations consultant who serves as a trusted advisor on strategy, advocacy, and media matters who resides in Easton.
Jonathon Powers says
What a shame the Washington College students could not treat a guest speaker with a bit of civility. As a graduate, I am embarrassed. No matter what the beliefs of the speaker, he/she should be heard then positive discourse can ensue.
When I was at Washington College we had protest against the Vietnam War. Paul Newman was our guest speaker. No one interrupted him.
Tina Jones says
Dr. George does not conduct himself with civility. He targets and dehumanizes individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Targeting people is not new in the history of humankind. Such tactics were used to justify slavery, Jim Crow laws and lynching in this country. It was used to justify the slaughter of millions of Jews and others in Germany. Targeting groups of people is not civil. It is discrimination and hate.
Reed Fawell 3 says
I am not surprised. But here you are most always wrong to blame the students, and most always right to blame the College’s faculty and administrators, who typically foster and allow this intolerable intolerance. I sensed this sort on closed minded ignorance within several of the past recent articles here written by Washington College promoting themselves which such a lack of awareness about what they were saying and how that might be interpreted by others with different views. On one I was pretty tough in my comment there. On the last few, I figured the situation was hopeless, so remained silent. Imagine the Washington College classrooms filled with such uncivil closed minded ideologues. Never would I pay the bill for such a place. And for many years I was a big fan of Washington College.
Al DiCenso says
I would hope that, if my dear departed friend Finn Caspersen were still the Chairman of the Hodson Trust, there would be a few pointed statements from him to the college administration, ending in “OR ELSE”!
Kim Cassady says
Amen!y
Al DiCenso says
Hi Kim,
Glad you were on board and understood my message!
Al
Al Sikes says
The College leadership should speak clearly and without equivocation on its views about free speech and campus hospitality toward visitors. Equivocation is the enemy of leadership.
Dick Deerin says
I would simply point out that your description of Robert George as having “deeply held conservative beliefs” glosses over the fact that he is a renowned anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion advocate, and these were the elements of his resume that generated the protests from many in the Washington College community, not simply the fact that he is a conservative. Having said that I do not support or approve of any act to prevent civil discourse, especially is higher education, no matter how distasteful the views expressed by a speaker,
Sharron Cassavant, PhD says
From your account, a college administration has once again dishonored and undermined the mission of higher education by allowing disruptive students — and sometimes, alas, faculty — to stifle views they don’t agree with. What we can count on is that tomorrow yet other infractions will attract the attention of those who think that only those who agree with them in every particular are worthy of being heard. I imagine those same students are righteously indignant about the current right wing attack on libraries but don’t grasp that they are guilty of exactly the same crime — trying to stifle all views they don’t agree with.
Without a serious commitment to educating all our citizens, old and young, left and right, in the basic precepts of reasoned discourse in a civil society, our short-lived democracy will crumble. This is serious stuff. Colleges and universities have the greatest responsibility to uphold reasoned discourse, and they are most to blame for cowardice in this struggle.
Mark Laurent Pellerin says
There is more to this, here:
https://blog.washcoll.edu/wordpress/theelm/2023/09/college-community-protest-ensues-announcement-of-talk-by-dr-robert-george/
Reed Fawell 3 says
Here is the Wikipedia bio of Dr. Robert P. George:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_P._George
Reed Fawell 3 says
In response to Tina Jones above, Robert P. George is the founder of the Wilberforce Institute, to further the work and word of William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833). A member of Parliament (MP) for Yorkshire (1784–1812), in 1785, Wilberforce became an evangelical who devoted the remainder of his life to reform. From 1787 on he lead the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for 20 years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. After that, he supported the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery and continued his involvement after 1826 until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire. He died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. See Wikipedia.
Reed Fawell 3 says
Here is a fine article by FIRE that puts this particular Heckler’s Veto event at Washington College into insightful context, nationally and as to Washington College generally.
https://www.thefire.org/news/hecklers-veto-strikes-again-time-washington-college
Janice Dickson says
I read this and I think it’s emblematic if the divisiveness in this country powered by WC’s entitled population.
Lynne Robins Hastings '54 says
Disgusting behavior! As a graduate of Washington College I am embarrassed at such behavior!