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Disinvited: College cites ‘safety concerns’ to cancel Robert Spencer speech

By Rebecca Downs
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Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. really did not want to hear Robert Spencer, author and director of Jihad Watch, speak. In a recent guest column for the College Fix, Spencer described three instances in which he was disinvited or barred from using equipment there. The third instance resulted in Spencer being barred from campus.

All the instances, it turns out, are over “safety concerns.”

The first instance took place several years ago. But, as Spencer, starts his piece off with, it all connects to the college campuses protests today:

The controversies at the University of Missouri and Yale make it indisputable that America’s universities and colleges are today less institutions of higher learning than centers of Leftist indoctrination and agitprop. As if aware, however, that forcible suppression of unwelcome points of view is contrary to the very idea of a university, today’s academic authoritarians cast about for fig leaves to cover up their slavish adherence to politically correct norms. At Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, officials have recently invoked security risks to cover up their hostility to points of view that veer too far from acceptable Leftist norms.

This is, unfortunately, a story in which I play a part…



The first instance saw Spencer disinvited by then-President Father Jonathan DeFelice, who had reportedly received complaints from Muslim students at the school. Spencer notes that “Islamic groups, like their Leftist allies, share a taste for shutting their critics down rather than engaging in ideas, and Fr. DeFelice was happy to oblige them.”

The second incident also saw the college’s president, then Dr. Steven R. DiSalvo, disinvite Spencer. He had been invited by the Philosophy Department, many of its members not pleased at the canceled event. This time, DiSalvo cited safety concerns and death threats.

As mentioned regarding the third attempt Spencer made to step foot on campus, he can’t even do so to use video equipment there.

Spencer then questions the safety of Saint Anselm then:

The dubiousness of this explanation is obvious. Numerous people who have received death threats have spoken on college campuses all over the country without incident. Since I first began receiving death threats, I have spoken at universities all over the country, including UCLA, Temple, Penn State, UNC, UVA, SUNY in both Binghamton and Stony Brook, Brown, Cal Poly, and many, many others. When people who have been threatened appear in public, they generally are in the company of security personnel who are equipped and prepared to deal with any incident. Why Saint Anselm considered any kind of security arrangements to be inadequate, DiSalvo didn’t explain, leaving open the question: why is Saint Anselm College so much more unsafe than all other campuses? Other colleges and universities nationwide can and do host speakers who have been threatened, and take measures to ensure everyone’s safety. Saint Anselm, by its own admission, can’t do that.


And Spencer doesn’t merely stay clear of Saint Anselm himself, but warns others to do so. Presidential candidates when campaigning in N.H., for instance, should not speak there. And, students should transfer to other schools where they can be better protected.

If Saint Anselm truly does not have the security measures to protect speakers and attendees from violent attackers, then it truly is alarming. The more likely reasoning is that it is a leftist institution too afraid of hearing certain ideas. Spencer certainly points to this and criticizes the college. Such a reasoning is almost just as frightening, if not more so.

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