Dust-Up Involving Conservative Student Sparks Political Uproar in Nebraska

By some measures, the protest that occurred at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln on August 25 was relatively minor: Courtney Lawton, a graduate student and lecturer was caught on video making rude gestures and using profanity as she confronted Kaitlyn Mullen, a student promoting the conservative group Turning Point USA. Ms. Lawton and Amanda Gailey, an associate professor who brought a sign to the student union, were called out on Turning Point’s website after the protest, though Ms. Gailey had largely stood off to the side and only engaged the student by offering help.

In all, there were just a handful of protesters, no physical violence or vandalism, and the whole confrontation was over in little more than an hour.

But the incident has caused a political uproar. One of the university’s regents has questioned whether the institution has properly disciplined the two instructors, and several state legislators have called for both of them to be fired.

Those responses have some faculty members feeling vulnerable, fearful of backlash over their views, and worried that their university won’t support them in the face of public pressure.

Many on campus are now anxious that their teaching and research, and even their personal political views, could be attacked by groups like Turning Point USA, said Julia Schleck, president of the state conference of the American Association of University Professors and an associate professor of English at the Lincoln campus. Faculty members and graduate students fear the administration may bow to political pressure to discipline them, Ms. Schleck said, rather than protect them from such attacks.

Ronnie D. Green, chancellor of the Lincoln campus, said the institution’s response in such situations is based wholly on the facts. “We investigated the incident from all angles,” he said. That inquiry was completed by September 7 and resulted in a disciplinary action for the grad-student instructor and no finding of fault for the full-time faculty member.

Despite the current political turbulence, Mr. Green said he is not worried about retribution from state lawmakers. And he has not sensed any chilling effect on the faculty’s speaking out about the issues. “I think people feel very supported here,” Mr. Green said.

Negative Reactions

The incident comes at a time when colleges — especially public ones — are under increased pressure from conservative political groups seeking to counter what they see as a liberal bias in academe. Turning Point USA has taken on a major role in this effort, expanding its presence on campuses and even secretly pouring money and resources into the campaigns of some student-government candidates.

On August 25, Ms. Mullen, a second-year student, set up a table near the student union to promote Turning Point USA, which is not yet a registered student organization at the university. (Reached by email, Ms. Mullen offered to comment for this article but failed to do so before publication.) A university staff member mistakenly told Ms. Mullen that she was not in the university’s “free-speech zone” and asked her to move to another area near the student union, but she declined.

Among the small group that assembled later to protest against Turning Point USA was Ms. Lawton, a doctoral student and lecturer in English.

Ms. Lawton carried a sign that read, “Just Say No! To Neo-Fascists.” In addition, she marched and chanted near the table, using profanity and deriding Ms. Mullen. Ms. Lawton could not be reached for comment.

Ms. Gailey, an associate professor of English, also went to the protest, and carried a sign that asked for Turning Point USA to put her on the group’s controversial Professor Watchlist. Ms. Gailey, according to numerous accounts, did not confront Ms. Mullen and even offered to help her when she appeared distraught.

“I showed up that day to oppose Turning Point,” Ms. Gailey said, “not to censor them. I never questioned their right to be on campus.”

By that evening, however, a video of the protest from Ms. Mullen had been widely shared on social media, and the negative reactions began pouring in.

On Monday morning, August 28, administrators spoke separately for several hours to Ms. Mullen and the two instructors, as well as to several staff members who were at the scene, said Mr. Green, the chancellor. University officials also reviewed the security footage of the incident, he said.

Following that inquiry, Ms. Lawton was removed from her teaching duties because of concerns for her safety, Mr. Green said. Ms. Lawton was also given a separate disciplinary action, he said, but he declined to elaborate, calling the matter confidential.

The university found no reason to discipline Ms. Gailey, said Mr. Green.

On September 7, the university released a statement that its investigation “related to the exchange between a student and a lecturer that took place Aug. 25" had concluded.

“Our expectations for civility were not met by the lecturer in her behavior toward a student,” the statement read.

But the explanations from the university have not satisfied Hal Daub, a regent and former mayor of Omaha who has deep ties to the state’s Republican Party. In an August 30th radio interview, Mr. Daub questioned the accounts of Ms. Gailey’s actions, saying video evidence could dispel her story.

“So there can be no manufactured excuses like, ‘Oh, I was just there trying to, uh, talk with her, hold her hand,’ That’s a bunch of bunk,” Mr. Daub told the radio host Gary Sadlemyer.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Daub said he was just raising the question, and that he and other board members were awaiting more details on the university’s findings.

He added that he real issue here was not freedom of speech, but the conduct of Ms. Lawton and Ms. Gailey. “Certainly, threatening gestures and swear words have no place,” he said.

“No one is saying teachers aren’t entitled to their point of view or in the proper time and place to express their point of view,” he said.

Some elected officials have taken Mr. Daub’s doubts a step further and painted a picture that differed drastically from the university’s findings.

On his legislative website, State Sen. Steve Erdman calls for Ms. Gailey to be fired, saying she “berated and intimidated” Ms. Mullen. He also cites Mr. Daub’s saying her actions were “a premeditated and organized effort to intimidate and shut down Kaitlyn Mullen.”

In an interview, State Senator Erdman acknowledged that he had spoken with university officials and that their findings are far different. Supposedly, Ms. Gailey “went to her aid,” he said, “that’s their explanation.”

‘In This Kind of Limbo’

While the university’s actions and conclusions have not appeased Mr. Daub and elected officials, they have also left many faculty members questioning whether the university would bow to political pressures.

In a letter to Mr. Green, the national office of the AAUP asserted that the university did not follow due process in suspending Ms. Lawton, and that the safety concerns cited for removing her from the classroom may have been a pretense. That’s because neither she nor the campus police had identified any active threats against her, the letter stated. In addition, there was no stated end date for the suspension, raising a concern that the action was meant to be a dismissal.

The local AAUP chapter wrote that although some may disagree with Ms. Lawton’s profanity, the bounds of professional civility required in the classroom do not extend to speech outside that area.

Ms. Lawton’s speech on August 25 “happened outside any teaching or instructional context, and thus falls under protected First Amendment rights, however offensive it may be to some members of our community or the public.”

Ms. Gailey said the university’s response has left her exposed to a backlash.

The chairman of the English department and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences have been helpful and supportive, Ms. Gailey said, but the university’s official statements have done nothing to clear her name.

“I’ve never been accused or heard anyone insinuate that I’ve done anything improper that day,” Ms. Gailey said in an interview. And yet, “there seems to be baffling motivations about clearing the air about what happened,” she said.

“I’m in this kind of limbo: There was never a real accusation to reach any conclusion about,” she said.

Ms. Gailey doesn’t expect the university to weigh in on the politics of the confrontation. “But because I played ball and didn’t speak to the press,” she said, “I think it was fair for me to expect that they release a statement that I have been found faultless.”

Mr. Green said that he had conveyed that information to the elected officials, as well as to the executive committee of the Faculty Senate.

The president of the Faculty Senate, Sarah Purcell, said Mr. Green was very clear that Ms. Gailey had been cleared of any wrongdoing. And she disputed the idea that faculty members are now fearful of any political retribution, either from advocacy groups like Turning Point USA or elected officials.

“Maybe it’s ‘Nebraska nice,’ or not wanting to add fuel to a fire that someone else started, or maybe the feeling that the University of Nebraska was a target. There is no fear,” Ms. Purcell said in an email.

Ms. Schleck, president of the Nebraska AAUP conference, says that such a disclosure at a confidential meeting of Faculty Senate leaders hardly qualifies as a public clearing of Ms. Gailey.

Some individual faculty members are also speaking out on behalf of the two instructors. Frances W. Kaye, a professor of English, led a rally this past Monday at the university to “change the narrative” about the incident, she said.

“The only student being silenced is the graduate student,” said Ms. Kaye, referring to Ms. Lawton. “The undergraduate student was not silenced,” she said, and “free speech doesn’t mean there can be no dissent.”

Eric Kelderman writes about money and accountability in higher education, including such areas as state policy, accreditation, and legal affairs. You can find him on Twitter @etkeld, or email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com.