Updated 6:30 p.m.
Middlebury College officials canceled a forum Wednesday that would have featured conservative Polish politician and academic Ryszard Legutko, saying they were concerned that they could not guarantee people’s safety as protestors organized.
But Legutko still spoke informally to students in a Middlebury classroom at the Robert A. Jones House late Wednesday afternoon.
The Middlebury Campus newspaper live-streamed part of the talk. The coverage ended abruptly after political science professor Matt Dickinson approached the camera and told a student to stop streaming. “That wasn’t allowed,” he said. The class was Dickinson’s American Presidency Seminar, according to the Campus.
The episode added to the drama of a tumultuous day. Reaction to the cancellation was mixed.
Organizers of a potentially large protest that had been promoted on Facebook at a page called “Ryszard Legutko is a f*ucking homophobe” emphasized that they were not trying to prevent the event from happening.
“In light of the recent announcement by the Middlebury College administration to cancel the Legutko event this afternoon, we are reiterating that it was never our intention to shut this event down, nor prevent the speaker from speaking,” Taite Shomo wrote. Shomo did not respond to a message seeking further comment.
Jason Duquette-Hoffman, assistant director of the Center for Community Engagement at Middlebury College, agreed. “I think [protesters] were very clear that that was not their intent,” he said.
Others, including former Republican Vermont governor Jim Douglas, said the administration’s decision to cancel was disappointing. Douglas teaches at the school, and he is on the steering committee of the Alexander Hamilton Forum at Middlebury, which sponsored the talk. He said he was not involved in choosing Legutko to speak, but he had planned to attend the lecture.
Canceling was a mistake, Douglas told Seven Days. “I understand that some folks on campus are unhappy with the [speaker], but that’s exactly the point,” Douglas said. “We have to be willing to invite and hear people who have views that we may not agree with. I don’t think an academic institution can be successful in its mission of learning without that.”
Other colleges have bolstered security to accommodate controversial speakers and Middlebury should have been able to do the same, Douglas said. He said he had been “cautiously optimistic” that, after dozens of student protesters shut down an appearance by conservative author Charles Murray in March 2017, the college was moving toward “a time of greater acceptance and tolerance of points of view.”
The college administration talks about free speech but on Wednesday did not “walk the walk,” Douglas said.
Keegan Callanan, a Middlebury assistant professor and director of the Alexander Hamilton Forum, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Grey Jing,
The Midd Kids have previously used actual violence resulting in actual injury to actual humans to silence voices they don’t want heard, and you equate that (morally???) with a traveling speaker ignoring the friend request of that one professor you think really ‘Get’s IT’ you know what I mean? Like…he really…gets IT. He taught my “Ancient Poli Sci-1947 to 1949” class. Plus he gets high, so you know he’s cooooollll…
Hang on, hang on. This in from the protesters’ facebook group:
“Just got out of class with professor Gary winslett who is giving the defense of liberal democracy at the Dana event today at 4:30. He said that when the poli sci department started talking about this event/controversy on Sunday, he pointed out that Legutkos problematic ideology should not be presented to students without a rebuttal. He offered to give that rebuttal to Legutkos face after his lecture tomorrow, but the political science department refused this opportunity for someone to challenge/engage/converse with Legutko.”
What happened to “both sides”, Professor Douglas? Sounds like the only side Middlebury admin wants is the hateful one!
Middlebury college is a disgrace. Good bye to critical thinking and an ability to respect both sides. I would NEVER send a kid to that damn place.
Right Wing gibberish is fairly predictable: “Corporate domination is good, anyone who has an abortion or provides abortion services should be put to death, only white people should have guns, all dark-skinned immigrants should be deported , destroying the environment is God’s Will and is great for the economy, Donald Trump is beyond the reach of the law, ultra-wealthy should pay no taxes, all social services and safety net programs should be cut, all government agencies should be privatized so they can be looted. We believe this because we are so Christian.”
Mr. Legutko should be allowed to speak and then suffer any abuse he stirs up. Righties love violence like this, just watch any video of Trump’s rallies, but they sure turn into whiny little girls when they are confronted by any resistance and become instant victims, just like President Bone Spurs.
I do not care what kind of a PHOBE this guy is; for Pete’s sake all you FASCISTS out there ALL people should be free to speak. If you don’t like what you hear fine but you make a FARCE out of a COLLEGE or University when you refuse the opportunity for a person to speak. What do you not understand. It is you people who should be refused the chance to speak because you basically hate FREEDOM unless it is your brand; and that is the essence of tyranny.
“A cornerstone of any kind of ‘thoughtful citizenship’ should always be listening, and we urge you all to recall the events of March 2, 2017 where the administration, including President Laurie Patton and the PSCI Department, failed to listen to the voices of students,” the letter states.
First the threat of more ideology driven violence, then…
“, we are reiterating that it was never our intention to shut this event down, nor prevent the speaker from speaking,
The true fascists; you shall know them by their deeds.
Who’s next for the Alexander Hamilton Forum? Full fledged Nazis next?
Gee, what a surprise the vocal outcry of a few suppressing those that wish to hear someone that they don’t agree with.
Really, what a surprise in this political climate.
Just more of the liberal censorship plaguing our country. Shame on the college for coddling special interest groups.
What about the rights of non-gay people & students who wanted to hear this man speak? When does what these gay rights activists are doing become hate crimes against non-special privilege groups? Everything has to be approved and blessed by them or nobody else can have anything to do with it?