Free Speech Not So Free at DePaul U

From: "DePaul's "1984" Moment"

By Nicholas G. Hahn III
FrontPageMagazine.com 1/29/2008

If you were to tour DePaul University's campus asking students about free speech, you would notice the hesitation in their answers. For the past couple of years, the DePaul administration has earned a reputation as a foe of controversial ideas, especially those that offend or challenge the status quo. This has tarnished DePaul's academic standing as a quality institution. To remedy this problem, President Rev. Dennis Holtschneider created a Free Speech and Expression Task Force and charged it with creating a policy for free speech that would hopefully rebuff any claims that DePaul isn't a friend of the free marketplace of ideas.

A university, in other words, should make everyone feel
as comfortable as possible, perhaps a return to the Haight-Ashbury experience
these professors miss dearly–-no disagreement, no argument, no reasoning, no
thinking, no responsibility. Their concept of "free speech" is meant to “protect
those without power.” This model of free speech, of course, is not free at all.
It is an ideological weapon which is regularly used to further the diversity
agenda. A model of "free speech" which involves controlling speech in order to
correct perceived injustices of the past is Orwellian to say the least.

As soon as my article appeared, the Diversity Council held a meeting with the president of the University and the Task Force. They demanded that something be done about the troublemaker, namely me. I pointed out that there had been no confidentiality agreement and the Guiding Principles had already been released. But they argued that members would no longer feel comfortable participating out of fear that whatever they say may be published. It was apparently inappropriate for me to hold these individuals accountable for their ideas. I could have been given a warning not to publish anything in the future without consent of the Task Force, which would have protected their sensibilities. But just as the race card helped to derail the Guiding Principles themselves, so now it sealed my fate. I ought to be ashamed, they told me, because the members of the Task Force named in my article were people of color. In other words, people of color are above criticism and my concern for free speech and the betrayal of its principles was essentially racist.

For President Holtschneider this was all he needed to hear. Each and every time an incident like this occurs, the administration buckles to the pressure of the diversity agenda; this time was no exception. Under apparent duress from the Diversity Council, I was informed that I would no longer be welcome on the Free Speech and Expression Task Force. So much for free speech.

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