This month, Robert P. George gave a campus talk about what he sees as a growing intolerance of certain viewpoints in higher ed.
“At some colleges and universities, speaking invitations to dissenters from campus orthodoxies are not issued,” the Princeton University professor wrote in prepared remarks he shared with The Chronicle. Those who are invited can be disinvited or pressured to withdraw, he wrote. Or “they are interrupted” or “shouted down.”
Some students who disagreed with George’s views on LGBTQ rights and abortion disrupted the speech. The event — at Washington College, a small liberal-arts institution in Maryland — ended early.
George declined to comment beyond sharing a copy of the speech, titled “Is There a Cure for Campus Illiberalism?” His remarks describe “the unwillingness of so many members of college and university communities” to engage with “arguments that challenge” their existing beliefs.
Protests of campus speakers are nothing new. But the circumstances of the Washington College event are a striking example of how fraught campus-speech issues have become in the current political moment, as states pass restrictions on LGBTQ rights and abortion access that many students oppose.
George is a conservative legal scholar who directs Princeton’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions and serves on the board of the Heritage Foundation, a right-leaning think tank. He has written and spoken about his opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and expansions of transgender rights.
While George’s lecture at Washington College did not address those issues, some students say that his affiliations and beliefs meant that he shouldn’t have been invited to the campus.
During the event, a small group of protesters entered the room. They shouted and played loud music, preventing George from finishing his prepared remarks. Campus security officers had been briefed that a demonstration could take place, but they did not intervene. College policy directs officers not to intervene in nonviolent protests, said Brian Speer, a Washington College spokesperson.
Speer said that administrators stepped in to try to de-escalate the situation, encouraging the group to allow George to speak and challenge him with questions after the lecture — but the protest continued. The Chronicle spoke with two people who attended the event, Speer and a student, who said that George sat to the side at a table during the disruption.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, known as FIRE, wrote a letter to the college arguing that security officers should have intervened and stopped the protest.
Michael J. Sosulski, Washington College’s president, condemned the disruption in an email to the campus, and said that protesters would be “held accountable” for violating the student honor code. Sosulksi had previously declined students’ demands to call off George’s speech.
Why Students Protested
George’s speech on September 7 was billed as the inaugural Lawrence W. Swanstrom Memorial Lecture. Joseph Prud’homme, an associate professor and director of the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture at Washington College, invited George and served as the event’s moderator. Prud’homme did not respond to a request for comment.
On the Monday before the event, the college sent a campuswide email promoting the lecture. Shortly after, James Hall, an associate professor of English, emailed a student a link to George’s accountability profile from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or Glaad, which features several examples of his anti-LGBTQ remarks.
Information about George’s beliefs quickly began circulating across campus. The next day, a group of students distributed fliers promoting a protest.
There needs to be serious considerations about the ramifications and potential harm that inviting someone like Robert George on campus could cause.
Noelle Punte, a junior at Washington College and president of Encouraging Respect of Sexualities, a student group supporting the LGBTQ community, emailed Sosulski and called for the college to cancel the event.
Punte, who did not attend the lecture or protest, said in an interview that regardless of the lecture’s content, inviting George to campus undermines the college’s commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion — at a time, she added, when anti-LGBTQ laws are on the rise. Engaging with diverse perspectives is important, Punte said, but that can be complicated for queer students, who often feel their identities are attacked in the process.
“I’m not saying freedom of speech should be restricted,” Punte said. “But at the same time, in cases like this, there needs to be serious considerations about the ramifications and potential harm that inviting someone like Robert George on campus could cause.”
The day before the lecture, Sosulski sent out a campuswide email announcing that although he understood students’ concerns, canceling George’s lecture would contradict the college’s commitment to “liberal learning.”
The president also shared George’s Glaad accountability profile and said that the college would “hold space” for those who felt “distressed” by George’s presence. Punte told The Chronicle that she felt that the alternative event was a “meaningless” gesture.
A few hours before the lecture, the Office of Student Affairs sent another email informing students that disrupting the event would be a violation of the honor code.
As the event neared, a few dozen students, faculty, and staff held a rally outside the building. The group donned pride flags and posted signs on the building’s doors with slogans like “trans rights are human rights.”
Once the event began, a small group of protesters announced that they would enter the lecture hall and try to prevent George from speaking. That plan had been organized in advance, according to a student who participated in the disruption. The student asked to be identified only with a first initial, G., because they fear for their safety.
According to G., one student, who was already in the venue and was aware of the plan to disrupt the lecture, saw the group enter and began yelling at George.
G. and Speer, the college spokesperson, told The Chronicle that two protesters — the student already in the room and someone who entered with the group — engaged with administrators and faculty, and tried to elicit a response from George. The remaining protesters held signs and spoke sporadically, and some danced or sang along to the music.
After about 15 minutes of back and forth between protesters, administrators, and faculty, with occasional commentary from others in the crowd of about 140 people, the event ended. G. told The Chronicle that George asked to leave. College officials maintain that it was Sosulski, the president, who decided to end the event.
Sosulski sent an email a day later condemning the protest and vowing accountability.
There are a lot more students that attended the event and wanted to question Dr. George and engage in dialogue with him, and they were robbed of that opportunity.
The College’s Response
Free-speech advocates were quick to chime in and denounce the “heckler’s veto” on George’s lecture, arguing that security officers should have done more to stop the protesters in the moment.
Haley Gluhanich, a program officer for campus rights advocacy at FIRE, said the organization commends the college for acknowledging the disruption was “unacceptable,” but still thinks that adequate “steps weren’t taken to stop the disruption.”
Speer said that given the “short notice” for the protest, Washington College handled the situation appropriately. The college offered “outlets for students” who felt uncomfortable with George’s presence, warned students in advance that disrupting the event would be an honor-code violation, and had officials attempt to de-escalate the protest.
“There are a lot more students that attended the event and wanted to question Dr. George and engage in dialogue with him, and they were robbed of that opportunity,” Speer said.
Asked if the college planned to change any protocols after the incident, Speer said that officials are evaluating policies and making adjustments where needed.
According to the two students who spoke to The Chronicle, a protester who previously transferred from Washington College and is currently enrolled at another institution was banned from the campus indefinitely. At least one student is slated for a disciplinary hearing in the coming days. Speer confirmed the students’ account.
Speer does not anticipate that any students will be expelled, but said the verdict rests with the college’s Honor Board, a group of mostly students and faculty.
Meanwhile, FIRE is concerned about the number of students who have recently shouted down speakers on campus, Gluhanich said. She said more colleges should add free-speech programs to first-year orientation and make sure students understand that shutting down an event is unacceptable.
“This is something we’ve been seeing a lot over the past year,” Gluhanich said. “We really need to educate students and other people in the community about how to engage with speech that they don’t particularly like or agree with.”
