The story of conservative speakers visiting college campuses and getting shouted down or disrupted by irate mobs of woke students has become sadly commonplace. But the latest such incident actually has an upside: For once, a top university is standing up for free speech and punishing the protesters.
It all started when the controversial conservative author Ann Coulter came to speak at her alma mater, Cornell University. As shown in the below video, eight college-aged protesters disrupted her speech, shouting, “Your words are violence!” and “We don’t want you to speak here.” Coulter was supposed to speak for an hour but reportedly ended up leaving after 20 minutes because the protests were so disruptive.
This was clearly a grotesque attack on free speech.
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Protesters have every right to voice their dissent outside of Coulter’s event or debate her in the Q&A, but when they cross the line into disrupting her ability to speak, that’s unacceptable. As the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression explained, “Shouting down speakers and disrupting scheduled events is not free speech or peaceful protest — it’s a ‘heckler’s veto’ that deprives speakers of their right to speak and listeners of their right to listen. Nobody has the right to hijack someone else’s expressive event because they don’t like what the speaker has to say.”
It’s also, ironically, incredibly counterproductive: Coulter’s speech and views have received way more attention because this protest happened than they would’ve if her remarks had occurred uninterrupted.
But this disturbing saga at least has something of a happy ending. Unlike many past incidents in which the universities have defended the protesters or failed to enforce their commitment to free speech, Cornell is seemingly doing the right thing. Security removed the protesters, and they will now reportedly face consequences.
“All Cornell students among the disrupters will be referred for conduct violations,” a spokesperson for Cornell told the Washington Examiner.
The university went on to apologize to Coulter, saying, “Cornell is committed to academic excellence and a core belief that learning flourishes in an environment where diverse ideas are presented and debated without hindrance. Cornell apologizes to Ms. Coulter and all members of the audience who hoped to hear her remarks. The inappropriate behavior displayed by disrupters does not reflect the university’s values.”
Of course, this doesn’t change what happened. But Cornell still deserves credit for its apology and for the consequences it is apparently enforcing against the disruptive protesters. If the university follows through, this will send a message and hopefully stop future disruptions and free speech violations.
The Right regularly bashes woke universities that suppress conservatives and restrict free speech — and for good reason. But we’ve also got to give credit to and uplift those universities that do the right thing so more will hopefully follow their lead.
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Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a co-founder of Based-Politics.com, a co-host of the Based Politics podcast, and a Washington Examiner contributor.
