UNC Liberals: No Free Speech Here
Once again, “progressive” students at a college disrupt an invited speaker, former Congressman Tom Tancredo. From the Raleigh News:
Tom Tancredo didn’t make it through his talk. In fact, he left campus early after protesters interrupted his speech and broke a window.
Protesters who weren’t allowed into the room where the speech was being given gathered outside the door and chanted, “There’s no debate, no space for hate.”
The former congressman once ran for president on a platform firmly against illegal immigration. He was invited to UNC to deliver a speech opposing in-state tuition benefits to illegal immigrants.
[Inside the room] Protesters interrupted his speech, stretching out a banner in front of him that read, “No one is illegal.” Tancredo grabbed the banner and confronted one of the people holding it.
Then there was the sound of glass shattering. A window was broken by more opponents outside. As the situation escalated, Tancredo left.
See, it doesn’t matter what your arguments are. It doesn’t matter that you are against something based upon principle or ethics or religion. All that matters is that if you don’t embrace or agree with the liberal, leftist agenda, be it on illegal immigrants, gay marriage, Islamic terrorists, personal responsibility, et cetera, whatever it is that you have to say is simply “hate speech” and you will be shouted down. This is the new liberal interpretation of the First Amendment.
Are there any college campuses around that aren’t dominated by liberal, political correctness? Is there a single school of higher education out there that allows a balanced presentation of ideas? Isn’t that what colleges — back in the day — promised? As a service to readers here who might have teenagers about to begin the application process for colleges, feel free to list them in the comments. Alas, I doubt that there are any.
Update: Here’s one candidate: Hillsdale College, in Michigan. I know they publish a free, well respected newsletter, Imprimis, featuring some “conservative” thinkers in the mix. Here’s the PDF list of back issues, and notice who’s authoring the articles. Impressive!
And, Hillsdale College accepts NO state or federal money. Good, in that liberal congressmen can’t blackmail them. Bad, maybe, in increased tuition rates or not accepting some grants. Of course, those grants always have strings attached so it’s probably a good thing for the school.
Anyone know about this school? Or others like it?
12 Responses to “UNC Liberals: No Free Speech Here”
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on 15 Apr 2009 at 3:37 pm # Canukausiuka
Mississippi State University has been fairly balanced. We’ve got both conservatives and liberals in roughly equal proportions. My department is heavier on the conservatives, my wife’s is heavier on the liberals, but to my knowledge no instances of forcing folks to accept either agenda. On the drill field, we’ve had gay pride folks and fire-and-brimstone bible beaters, and the school seems fine with both unless they actually disturb classes.
on 15 Apr 2009 at 6:43 pm # Eseell
The university I attended was fairly conservative. About 1/3 of the students are ROTC cadets, and many of the professors are veterans. Given the focus of the school, most of us went into either military or government service, or to work for a defense contractor after graduation.
During the 2004 election season one brilliant student (not an engineer, I assume) decided to put a Kerry sign in his dorm room window and his room got vandalized pretty severely. No one else put up Kerry posters after that.
on 15 Apr 2009 at 7:40 pm # Dr. T
My alumnus, the Rochester Institute of Technology, doesn’t shut down conservative speakers. I believe the large numbers of engineering, science, and computer technology majors provide some balance to the mostly left-liberal art, photography, social science, and liberal art majors.
RIT is a private school that is not heavily dependent upon federal funding. It also is a technical school and not a university, which gives it the less left-wing flavor I mentioned above. There also is little of the “organize the students to support some dip-shit liberal cause” nonsense seen at most campuses: the science- and tech-oriented students have to spend much of their time studying.
My daughter is at UT Knoxville. It’s a left-wing school, but not as obnoxiously so as UNC. Most debates are about religion, not human rights.
on 16 Apr 2009 at 12:56 am # comatus
I’ve gotten to like what the Hudson High crowd call “the little engineering school in the Rockies,” just north of Colorado Springs. Admission is tricky, but the student financing plan is fantastic, and they guarantee a job for several years after graduation. Also, their fight song can’t be beat.
on 16 Apr 2009 at 4:12 am # L P Ritter
Grove City College, Grove City, PA takes no federal money
on 16 Apr 2009 at 8:05 am # Lazarus Long
It looks like these are devoted storm troopers-in-training.
on 16 Apr 2009 at 9:35 am # emdfl
Big wow. Leftists/libs won’t allow discussion of points contrary to their view - as usual. No real surprises there.
Sometimes I REALLY wish some conservatives would form stirking crews at these places and just go in and start breaking heads.
Of course if they did, they would be arreted for hate-speech crimes and failing to follow the dictats of their indoctrinators.
on 16 Apr 2009 at 3:59 pm # treefroggy
Both Hillsdale and Grove City have excellent reputations, and their “final” tuition even without federal grants is about the same as a comparable private schools that start out with outrageously high tuitions and them bring the “final” amount down using government funds. ( FAFSA )
on 17 Apr 2009 at 12:46 am # Casey M.
Mount Wachusett Community College in, get this, Massachusetts of all places is quite decent in my experience so far.
I’ve been allowed to write two research papers on why gun control sucks; one for each class I’m currently taking. Both teachers have given their blessings without a second thought.
My psychology teacher also happens to be an ex-cop and he never misses an opportunity to slam our comrade Obama.
Earlier this week when he was handing back tests he asked everyone who voted for and supports Obama to raise their hands. He then said that if they got above an 80 on the test he would take away their extra points and give them to the people who failed. When people started laughing he asked what was so funny since that’s what Obama’s doing with our money.
on 18 Apr 2009 at 6:25 am # J C
It’s nice to know that there are colleges that don’t accept federal money, and though I can’t find confirmation about Hillsdale, not accepting state money sounds excellent, too. We should definitely try to support schools and other non-profit efforts that are independent of government funding, and therefore better protected against government meddling.
I can’t seem to come up with the right Google query for this: does anybody know of any lists of schools, charities, etc. that do not and will not accept funding from government at any level? This is the kind of institution that I want to support.
on 19 Apr 2009 at 12:33 am # Tom Anderson
The police in this case totally mishandled it. There is space enough on a university campus for both right- and left-wing people to make their cases known. It’s not a justification that these 18-22 year olds don’t understand the formalities of free speech, but it also seems like the Congressman doesn’t either.
He invoked the first amendment for free speech, but actually the first amendment restricts laws that limit free speech by the Legislative explicitly (and the Executive/Judicial branches by extension). Therefore, there is no law against the students from having large signs and speaking loudly during the Congressman’s speech. That also means that police have not been granted by law the right to spray pepper spray to disrupt the free speech of the students.
The best thing, and most legal approach to resolving this antagonism, would be to create an appropriate venue for the protesters that does not encroach upon the freedom of speech of the Legislative representative.
on 20 Apr 2009 at 8:50 pm # Kevin
I actually attended Hillsdale College.
I can rightfully confirm there is no domination of liberals or political correctness.
In fact, students actually receive a classical education.
My favorite part was the political debates. At Hillsdale, the two largest and most active political parties would very often argue the best course for the country. There were were no protestors shouting down their opponents, just reasoned, if passionate, debate.
It was unique, though, because at Hillsdale, those two parties were the Republicans and the Libertarians.