Purdue University President Mitch Daniels took a strong stand in October against liberal suppression of free speech on campus. Daniels blasted Purdue professor Bill Mullen, founder of “Campus Antifascist Network.” Mullen has called for investigations into the posting of white supremacist fliers on campus, and for the school to punish those responsible.
President Daniels dismissed these requests, highlighting the importance of the school’s free speech code. “No member of the Purdue community has benefited more from this policy than you have,” Daniels warned the so-called “antifa” group. “In recent days,” he continued, “I have spent considerable time replying to multiple messages from citizens who find your various pronouncements abhorrent and unacceptable, and demand that you be sanctioned or expelled from the university entirely.”
“In particular,” President Daniels wrote, “your defense of the so-called ‘antifa’ organization, a group that has not only advocated but practiced violence, gave deep offense and embarrassment to many. In the past, I have had to defend your right to speech that was widely interpreted as racist… I have given the simple answer I am giving to you.”
According to a report in the Lafayette Journal and Courier, the University determined that there was ‘zero evidence’ to suggest that the Purdue student community was responsible for the flyers supposedly recruiting for white supremacists organizations.
Daniels concluded his stellar response: “A link to the trustee-approved Purdue University Commitment to Freedom of Expression is below, and I encourage you to review the statement in its entirety. Briefly put, we may condemn but we don’t silence individuals in the university community, regardless of how offensive or preposterous their remarks or writings may be.
As college after college kowtows to the big liberal agenda bully, it’s refreshing to see at least one Administration stand up for the First Amendment right of its students. Freedom of Speech is an often uncomfortable two-way street, and it seems that Purdue University and President Mitch Daniels have no intention of changing the rules to accommodate thought police thuggery.
