Thursday, March 29, 2018



College Rejects Ben Shapiro Speech on Anniversary of Hate Crime Hoax

A private college in Minnesota refused to allow conservative author and commentator Ben Shapiro to speak on the anniversary of a hate crime hoax at the school.

The Turning Point USA chapter at St. Olaf College attempted to invite Shapiro to speak April 23, but the campus administration shut down the proposal, citing the date as a time for “building unity,” The College Fix reported.

“The issue is not about whether Ben Shapiro can come to our campus, but when,” St. Olaf President David Anderson told the group in an email. “As you all know, the only date that Mr. Shapiro has indicated he is willing to travel to our campus is at a time that coincides with the anniversary of last year’s protests. This is deeply concerning.”

Anderson referred to protests that took place upon discovery of a letter containing the N-word on campus. St. Olaf later found that the author fabricated the note to drum up attention for a supposed racist campus climate.

Kathryn Hinderaker, president of the St. Olaf Turning Point chapter, said the group had been in the process of planning the Shapiro visit since November and he was available to speak only on April 23.  Administrators turned down the visit in February, days before Turning Point had to submit a payment to finalize the speech.

“Ben has spoken out time and time again about his belief that racism is an inherent evil, and it should be fought at every turn. Any true conservative agrees with that,” Hinderaker told The College Fix. “Ben and the racist note have absolutely nothing in common, so having them on the same day should be no issue at all if the school has any interest in fostering intellectual diversity among its students.”

SOURCE

4 comments:

Bird of Paradise said...

Another privately run indoctrination center run by the left

Anonymous said...


They must be desperate to find any excuse if they have to resort to citing the anniversary of a short lived HOAX.

Dean said...

There is great fear of students having access to conservative opinions on the part of educators at all levels. They realize that truth will derail their liberal objectives.

As darkness fears light, so liberals fear truth.

Anonymous said...

This appears to be two sides of a story that cannot even agree on the facts. Or maybe the timing of the facts are the real heart of this issue.

The school released a statement that is not in the original post or the cited article:

St. Olaf is deeply committed to ensuring that diverse viewpoints are free to be expressed on our campus, including those of conservative speakers like Mr. Shapiro. Our campus has always been open to voices like his. For example, in just the past few years we’ve hosted Christina Hoff Sommers, Joanna Williams, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, U.S. Congressman Newt Gingrich, William Kristol, and Karl Rove, to name a few. We have never stated or implied a connection between racism and conservatism.

While we cannot speak to Mr. Shapiro’s current speaking schedule, our information confirms that when this issue was brought to our attention in February, there were alternative dates available. As we indicated to our students, Mr. Shapiro is welcome to come at an alternative time, and we offered our assistance to help arrange a visit.

The protest last year was the culmination of a series of incidents on campus and across the nation. We hope that the anniversary of last year will be an opportunity to bring the campus closer together and not to divide us further apart. We seek an environment where people from the broadest range of backgrounds can come to better understand one another and hear one another’s voices.


https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/43241/

It almost seems that the college met with the group back in February, was aware of other planned events on the April date and to avoid conflict, said, "there are other dates you are showing us. Please pick one of them." The student group decided to either pick the April date or dilly-dallied around until that date was supposedly the "last date available."

Neither the college group or the college played this one well.