Ex-Northwestern president axed as Georgetown Law commencement speaker

I’m having a tough week. I recently had to write colon He expresses skepticism about the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey for shell art posted on social media, even though he was one of his longest and most vocal critics.

I now find myself having to write an op-ed in defense of former Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro, who was ousted as commencement speaker of Georgetown Law School. Me too criticized For years, Schapiro has been viewed as a major force in the destruction of intellectual diversity in higher education. The problem with believing in free speech is that you have to believe in free speech, even for people whose speech you hate. In both cases the irony is devastating. Comey, who targeted President Donald Trump in a baseless Russia collusion investigation fabricated by the Clinton campaign, is now complaining about legal sanctions against him.

Schapiro is even less convincing as a victim of the repeal campaign. While Northwestern president, Schapiro moved left and showed little support for free speech on campus. Schapiro condemned what he called “absolute” free speech positions and upheld speech sanctions, including treating speech as a form of attack.

Under Schapiro, a wide range of speech was viewed as “micro-aggressive” or unacceptable in terms of compliance and engagement. He did little to quell viewpoint intolerance and the virtual purge of conservative or Republican faculty at Northwestern.

Now the mafia has come for Schapiro.

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He was chosen to speak at the law school’s commencement and sparked an immediate backlash. Schapiro, a Jewish academic, is seen as pro-Israel. It was immediately labeled “Zionist” by students and faculty, making it an offensive choice.

A. petition He called on the administration to dismiss Schapiro, stating that “Schapiro is not a lawyer, has no connection with Georgetown, and has controversial, Zionist and harmful views.”

Of course, Henry Louis Gates Jr. Past speakers who spoke at the commencement ceremony were not lawyers with any connection to Georgetown, but there were no protests. This was just last year.

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Homecoming ceremonies continue to be a lock for liberal and Democratic speakers each year. After removing most conservative faculty from departments, universities have turned graduation exams into the final courses of ideological indoctrination of students.

This year’s speakers Figures range from Nancy Pelosi (University of Notre Dame de Namur) to Jamie Raskin (American University and Goucher College) to candidates like James Talarico (Paul Quinn College). There is no subtlety in their choices and messages. As expected, Pelosi harshly criticized the GOP and Trump, while Talarico gave a moving speech about fighting billionaires.

Anti-Israel protest and Iran rally at Georgetown University split. (Getty Images)

Schapiro fits into the narrow ideological range of permitted liberal speakers with one notable complication: He supports Israel.

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Accordingly, Schapiro was unceremoniously dismissed and replaced by a Georgetown law professor who opposed investigations of antisemitism on campuses.

Schapiro is wrote campus leaders: “As a president and dean, I have presided over 28 commencement ceremonies, and these ceremonies are held to celebrate graduates and those who support them. I was looking forward to giving a speech about humility and gratitude, but I did not want my presence to distract from the day’s festivities. I wish the law school graduates good luck in the days ahead.”

This was a graceful and mature response to an adolescent and irrational campaign.

MY UNIVERSITY EXPLIED ME BECAUSE OF MY OPINIONS. NOW HE PAYS THE PRICE

Unfortunately, this was the product of the same shameful appeasement policies that I had previously criticized Schapiro for enabling at Northwestern.

During his tenure, the university ceded academic integrity and control to student gangs. An example I discussed previously involved a Sociology course taught by Professor Beth Redbird that examined “inequality in American society with an emphasis on race, class, and gender.” Redbird invited both an undocumented person and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. This was exactly the kind of balanced discussion we once valued in higher education; It offered students very different views, allowing them to consider underlying social and political realities.

Various student groups organized protests to prevent their fellow students from hearing from ICE agents. They received great help from the university itself. As protesters chanted “Fuck ICE” outside the hall, the Dean of Students emerged and told these students that they would be allowed into the classroom if they promised not to disrupt class. The university simply asked them to stop using profanities and told Redbird they promised to sit quietly in her classroom.

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Of course, they immediately stopped the class, the ICE officer had to be removed, and Redbird had to cancel his class. What was most frustrating was not only Northwestern’s passivity (it took no action against students), but also its sense of entitlement at the university that prevented others from speaking up.

‘Hey fascist! To capture!’ A flyer from the Georgetown John Brown Gun Club (left) and a member of the Georgetown College Republicans (right)

Sophomore April Navarro rejected the idea that faculty should be allowed to invite such speakers into their classes for “a nice, pleasant conversation with ICE.” He added, “We’re not interested in having those kinds of conversations… We’re not interested in that kind of thing; it justifies ICE’s violence, it makes Northwestern complicit in this.”

Now Schapiro himself is being cancelled.

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in my book Anger and RepublicI write about how academic and political figures ignore history while pandering to radical groups. Democratic leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries believe they can ride the wave of anger back to power. What they ignore is how these revolutions ultimately “destroy their own revolutions.” Today’s revolutionaries will be tomorrow’s reactionaries.

Schapiro is just the latest victim of viewpoint intolerance in higher education. Of course, Schapiro’s critics can quote Schapiro himself when rejecting objections that reduce freedom of expression to mere “slogans or freedom of expression at all costs.” It seems it is now one of the prohibitive costs to be avoided in our academic echo chamber.

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