Middlebury College Crisis Meeting

Описание: Full Audio: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ST_...

A Middlebury College student contacted me with an audio recording of a student/faculty meeting. He was concerned about what took place and wanted help to get it out so I put a video together for him.

Officials at Middlebury College in Vermont have cancelled a planned event featuring a talk by conservative Polish politician and philosopher, Ryszard Legutko.

Legutko is often subject to fierce opposition to his right-wing views. Protests of the Legutko event at Middlebury were planned, before the college cancelled his appearance, citing safety concerns.

An email signed by provost Jeff Cason and deen Bashakhi Taylor was sent out to the campus hours before the appearance by Legutko saying, "In the interest of ensuring the safety of students, faculty, staff and community members, the lecture by Ryszard Legutko scheduled for later today will not take place. The decision was not taken lightly. It was based on an assessment of our ability to respond effectively to potential security and safety risks for both the lecture and the event students had planned in response."

An open letter circulating on campus had earlier questioned sponsoring "a speaker who blatantly and proudly expounds homophobic, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic discourse." Bringing such a speaker to campus amounts to "shutting out large swaths of the Middlebury community, all of whom are engaged, critical and rigorous thinkers whose energies would be better spent not combating degrading and dehumanizing rhetoric."

Many disputed this argument, disavowing some of his stances but saying it was important for the college to have speakers with a wide range of views.

More: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2...