UPDATE 03/16/2023 – 11:30 AM: Within hours of YAF and ADF putting Purdue administrators on notice, the university notified students that their event is fully approved. YAF looks forward to bringing Michael Knowles to campus next week and will continue to work with the students to ensure the event is successful.
Young America’s Foundation, in partnership with Alliance Defending Freedom, sent Purdue University a legal demand letter Wednesday afternoon after leftist administrators made clear that they intend to do everything within their power to prevent a YAF Logan Family Lecture Series event featuring Michael Knowles from happening next week.
Everything was lined up for a successful lecture to take place on the evening of March 23 – a contract was signed, a venue was booked, and tickets were distributed to students eager to hear the popular Daily Wire commentator speak on their campus. That is until administrators with the Student Activities Office ordered students to stop advertising the event immediately, claiming that it had yet to receive university approval.
This claim was made even though the university’s contract administrator, Jessica Evans, signed a contract in February explicitly agreeing to host the lecture as scheduled.
The university is also trying to evade its contractual obligation to pay for all costs associated with event security.
In an attempt to clarify the situation, students held a Zoom call with Purdue’s administration, only to be met with unprofessionalism and outright censorship – administrators wielded the mute button to silence Young America’s Foundation representatives who joined the call to assist the students.
Purdue’s actions throughout this ordeal directly oppose the principles of free expression to which the university claims to adhere.
Leftist administrators at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Florida, and SUNY-Binghamton, among others, have learned throughout the years that Young America’s Foundation is prepared to take whatever legal action is necessary to ensure that conservative ideas can be heard freely on college campuses. It would certainly be in the best interests of Purdue University to immediately stop infringing on the constitutional rights of its students.
Free tickets for Michael Knowles’ lecture at Purdue University on March 23 are available here.
