In yet another attempt to purge the campus of speakers with a conservative perspective, members of the student government at Middlebury College are threatening to disband their organization unless students are allowed to exercise more control over who is allowed to speak on campus.
Last week, several members of the Middlebury College Student Government Association submitted an extensive list of ridiculous demands that are effectively considered non-negotiable by elected student officials, several of whom have threatened to resign if the demands are not implemented by the school. “If tangible plans to implement these proposals are not released, a majority of SGA Senators will resign such that the SGA Senate will no longer be able to make quorum, effectively dissolving the body,” the letter read.
Among several demands submitted by the students is a request that any individual who wishes to bring a speaker to campus be required to fill out a form with the Diversity and Inclusion Office at Middlebury, which will then be submitted to a “student advisory committee” that will determine whether speaker’s values align with those of Middlebury College.
“Any organization or academic department that invites a speaker to campus will be required to fill out a due diligence form created by the Offices of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in coordination with the SGA Institutional Diversity Committee,” the letter reads. “These questions should be created to determine whether a speaker’s beliefs align with Middlebury’s community standards, removing the burden of researching speakers from the student body.”
In their letter, the students cite the March 2017 on-campus speech by sociologist Charles Murray as one of the reasons for demanding greater scrutiny about the views of future campus speakers. During Murray’s conversation with political science professor Allison Stanger, the two were repeatedly threatened, shouted down, and eventually attacked, causing Stanger to require treatment for a concussion in the local hospital later that evening.
If that wasn’t enough, the students have also demanded that all campus faculty and staff be forced to undergo “recurrent bias training” and that the college provide a public list of faculty members who refuse such training, so that students can make informed decisions about whether or not to take a class being taught by members who refuse.
While it’s pretty obvious the administration at Middlebury is not likely to accept advice from a student body notorious for assaulting speakers with whom they disagree, it will be interesting to see if the student government follows through on their threat to disband, essentially creating one less headache for the administration to have to deal with.
John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) is a graduate of Canisius College and Georgia Southern University. He interned for Red Alert Politics during the summer of 2012 and has continued to contribute regularly.
