Opinion: Free speech or college crackdown?

To the editor: As the father of two 2017 graduates of both Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate School this past May, I was heartened to read that College President Hiram Chodosh followed through with his commitment to discipline the hooligans who disrupted the appearance of speaker Heather MacDonald. ( Re “College suspends 5 over protest,” July 24)

The intent of a liberal arts education is to present all views to its students so they may acquire the ability to process diverse opinions and formulate their own conclusions. When divergent viewpoints and those who deliver them are shouted down, denied a forum or threatened with physical violence the entire system breaks down.

Incidents at UC Berkeley and other institutions formally known as bastions of free speech have demonstrated the need for swift discipline to preserve our 1st Amendment rights. I applaud Chodosh and his team and hope this restores to our higher education system some measure of balance.

Rick Wilson, Pasadena

To the editor: Hooray for Chodosh for teaching students that might makes right.

Heather MacDonald’s support of police actions shooting unarmed citizens of color absolutely needs protection.

Ignore students’ free speech rights because students are considered the bottom of the stack, without rights of any kind.

President Chodosh’s fearless brave actions in suspending outraged students and doling out stiff disciplinary actions should be applauded. Incendiary speakers invited to a campus setting are expected to raise protests. Wasn’t that why Chodosh allowed MacDonald to speak in the first place?

Most college presidents handle these situations differently.

Marcy Bregman, Agoura Hills

To the editor: It’s about time that finally the president of Claremont McKenna College stood up for our basic right of free speech.

Hopefully, more universities will remember that it is they who are in control of enforcing school regulations, not the students. Too many situations arise when it is the students who seem to make the rules as to what “they” consider is free speech.

Prohibiting speakers they disagree with by shouting them down, inhibiting free access, and causing property damage and violence are the direct opposite of free individual thought. Colleges and universities are places where all aspects of ideas should be expressed.

Kudos to the Claremont McKenna president for standing up for the majority of the student body.

John Golden, Thousand Oaks

To the editor: The actions seem disproportionately harsh, and are resulting in a devastating disruption of the educations and job quests of the students being disciplined.

At a time when media professionals and the rest of us in the community are struggling to formulate an articulate response to the Trump administration and its complete lack of veracity, moral discipline and intellectual integrity, these actions are only causing more confusion for students trying to discern how to stand up for their convictions and for the rights of their brothers and sisters to be free of rhetorical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, legal and physical violence against them.

Any laws broken by the students during their protest could not possibly be proportionate to the violence suffered by members of our community when ignorant, morally repugnant, and bigoted viewpoints are given disproportionate space in the public commons at the Claremont Colleges and elsewhere.

Brian Prestwich, Los Angeles

To the editor: I was at Claremont McKenna College when a number of students, displaying a great deal of artificial bravery, blocked my visibly elderly and visibly handicapped person from entering the building at which Heather Mac Donald was to speak.

As a child of the 1960s, when protests took place about much more important things, I wondered whether any of them had ever even bothered to vote. Shouting their almost-unintelligible slogans in my face, these wannabe revolutionaries refused to hear my explanations that I was there to attend a special event which was completely unrelated to their blockade.

By their anti-democratic behavior, the protesters made MacDonald, whom I frankly despise, look better than she deserves.

Don Fisher, Claremont

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