Leftist students at Stanford University are showing their trademark intolerance of conservative ideas ahead of the YAF-sponsored Robert Spencer speech, part of the Fred Allen Lecture Series.
“Stop Student Fees Going to Support Islamaphobic Speaker Event [SIGN PETITION + FORWARD WIDELY]” proclaims the subject line of an email sent to several student lists by Caleb Smith, a student at Stanford.
Failing to understand the point of higher education, that being the free and open exchange of ideas, Smith decries a routine appropriation of student fees for the campus conservative club to host New York Times bestselling author and renowned expert on Islam Robert Spencer.
“In response,” Smith writes, “I am seeking to hold a referendum on this appropriation that would give the student body the ability to vote on it and overturn it if they so choose.”
“There is no compelling reason we should all be complicit in it [the lecture by Robert Spencer] by having our student fees go to pay for the event expenses,” he writes later. “There are a lot of groups at Stanford that desperately need more funding, and it does not make sense to use $6,000 of student funds to support a speaker who is actively hostile to a large and valued segment of our campus community. Please sign the petition to send a clear signal that student fees should support the student welfare, not hateful rhetoric.”
Nevermind the open-ended call for a student welfare state for now, the allegedly “hateful rhetoric” Smith points at are direct quotes from Islamic texts, a reality check on leftists who kowtow to political correctness in the face of radical Islamic terror, and the truth about the threats that our country faces every day, including on Tuesday afternoon in New York City.
Here we have yet another leftist attempting to ignore official university procedure to defund the conservative students who were duly awarded funds to bring in a diverse point of view. Young America’s Foundation and the conservative students at Stanford who requested to bring Robert Spencer are providing an opportunity for conservative ideas to be heard on Stanford’s campus, something that certainly shakes leftists to their core.
In addition, staff in Twain Hall (a freshman dormitory) issued an email with “Community Safety” as the subject line in response to concerns over Robert Spencer fliers:
“Tonight at house meeting, there was discussion of specific fliers in the dorm, which are promoting the Robert Spencer event. As a staff we want to address this. We recognize and support freedom of speech, and we also value safety,” the email begins, before jumping the whole shark to claim that words printed on a poster are a safety hazard.
“The flier makes people of some marginalized identities feel unsafe, and that is not OK. Twain is your home. It is where you live, and everyone deserves to feel safe. These fliers are not welcome. The hallway spaces belong to the Twain community. If something in the dorm ever makes you feel unsafe (poster, action, comment, etc.), please come talk to us.”
“We want to empower your freedom of speech, and it is our job to create a safe space,” the email closes, apparently not realizing today’s leftists have made the two ideas incompatible by using feelings as a reason to supersede the law of the land.
Stanford has also taken steps to limit the reach of Robert Spencer’s lecture, including a ban on streaming the event as YAF often does with its campus lectures.
