If students at Elon University got their way, syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker would join the list of disinvited speakers because she’s apparently not the right “mentor and role model for students.”
Senior Becca Nipper started a petition to prevent Parker from speaking and “from spreading her dangerous rhetoric,” Campus Reform reported.
Students included excerpts from her 2008 book, Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care to justify silencing her. There were also articles by Parker presented not by their title, but from what students took from them. For instance, “Unanswered questions in Trayvon Martin case” is presented as “Racial profiling is common sense” and “Sex after drinking and the war on men” is presented as “Women are using alcohol as a way to blame men for sexual assault.”
The university announced in May that Parker would deliver their Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture in October. Parker won the Pulitzer in 2010 and is the most widely syndicated columnist.
But the “slightly to the right of center” columnist is too dangerous for Nipper and about 300 signers. The petition denies that it is about viewpoint:
The university stood by inviting Parker in a statement from Vice President of University Communications Dan Anderson. The statement encouraged students to hear from those with different views because it is “a key characteristic of a strong intellectual environment,” which should be obvious.
Received this university statement from Dan Anderson re: the petition seeking to bar Kathleen Parker from speaking: pic.twitter.com/ygITu2LZRY
— Tommy Hamzik (@T_Hamzik) July 26, 2016
Nipper said she will be looking into alternate programming and a possible discussion with Parker at Elon, The Pendulum reported.
While the event will occur in October, disinvitations are on the rise, as tracked by a FIRE database. They include speakers like Janet Mock, a transgender activist many would think leftist students would embrace, but who didn’t speak at Brown University because of backlash over the Jewish student group Hillel co-sponsoring the event. Jason L. Riley, a Wall Street Journal columnist, was disinvited from Virginia Tech for his conservative perspective on race.
