Baylor University, a Baptist university in Texas, has arranged to have an “equity officer” investigate the motivations behind Young Americans for Freedom’s decision to host conservative commentator Ben Shapiro on campus in November, according to a statement by Baylor’s YAF chapter.
According to a press release from the Baylor chapter of YAF, Gamma Alpha Ypsilon (GAY), an unofficial gay rights student group, is responsible for pushing the university to hold meetings about campus speakers. GAY was denied official charter status earlier this year following a May decision by the Board of Regents to uphold a ban on “advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching.”
The Baylor chapter of YAF claimed that the school’s president, Dr. Linda Livingstone, approached GAY to say that she was on its side — a contradiction of the ruling by the Board of Regents. Shortly after this meeting, YAF says, they were contacted by the school’s director of student activities to arrange meetings with GAY.
YAF Chair Zachary Miller said he was told the meetings would be “co-facilitated” by Brittney Wardlaw, Baylor’s manager of equity and civil rights. According to the faculty profile for Wardlaw, she “conducts investigations for claims related to discrimination and harassment around protected characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and veteran status. She also educates faculty, staff, and students on topics including implicit bias, explicit bias, and diversity.”
Miller told the Washington Examiner that Wardlaw was employed by Baylor’s Equity Office and not the Division of Student Life, which had planned the meetings between YAF and GAY.
Though GAY has not commented on Shapiro, several students associated with the group shared their displeasure at Shapiro’s campus appearance.
“SERIOUSLY @BAYLOR???? You’re seriously not going to change your policy OR respond to @baylor_gay charter but you’re approving effing Ben Shapiro to come on campus????” one student wrote with a link to YAF’s announcement.
SERIOUSLY @BAYLOR???? You’re seriously not going to change your policy OR respond to @baylor_gay charter but you’re approving effing Ben Shapiro to come on campus???? pic.twitter.com/2pFKMDktsf
— paige conservative punching bag hardy (@turnthepaigeh) September 5, 2019
Another student said that his soul felt sickened by the announcement of Shapiro’s speech.
Watching “Ben Shapiro Destroys College Snowflake” videos so I can do some writing on him before he comes to Baylor and my soul hasn’t felt this sick since I tried to get through Jordan Peterson’s Bible lectures.
— ???? ?? (@J_E_Raabe) September 18, 2019
Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew who holds traditional religious values, is a prolific public speaker with mainly conservative beliefs. His campus appearances often draw public complaints from liberal student groups and protests.
The first meetings between YAF and GAY with the equity officer are tentatively scheduled for Thursday at Baylor University.
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UPDATE:
An earlier version of this story incorrectly claimed that the Baylor Board of Regents voted directly against chartering GAY.
UPDATE:
Baylor student and Vice President of GAY Anna Conner reached out to the Washington Examiner to comment on this report. Her remarks are below.
“I want to make clear that President Livingstone has never reached out to us in any way. The closest we’ve had to contact with her is from the campus wide email she sent that stated Baylor’s policies on homosexuality would not change … Our club does not disagree with Ben Shapiro coming to campus nor did we disagree with Matt Walsh last semester (one member did participate in taking down flyers of the event last semester but he publicly stated in Baylor’s newspaper that he was doing it independent of us). We have even made official statements in other articles and on our social media saying we don’t oppose him.”
“Yes there is a meeting but we’ve requested a meeting for an entirely different matter. Starting from last semester, YAF, mainly Zachary Miller, has been publicly stating that our club is violent and have intentionally threatened or sabotaged their members/meetings. Behavior such as that is abhorrent and is not tolerated in our club. We’ve reached out several times asking for information regarding these events so that we can help them feel safer and so we can identify whether these attacks care from one of our members.”
“Unfortunately, all of our requests were ignored and they continue to make these accusations which forced us to ask administration if they could set up a mediated meeting between the officers of the two clubs so we can settle these serious accusations. The mediators are specially trained to deal with these issues and remain neutral in the conversation. One of the mediators chosen, we had no involvement in this, happens to be from Baylor’s equity office. Mediators are also subject to change if one group disagrees or feels a disadvantage and they could have made that known before going to the press with this misinformation.”
“To be clear, Baylor is not investigating YAF or their event, nor have we requested it. The meeting is also not mandatory and YAF has the right to not participate no matter how much I think we need this meeting. YAF also has the ability to request changes if they so choose.”
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Editors note: Additional sourcing has been added to the original report that Baylor had arranged to send an equity officer to investigate YAF.
