HAS MELISSA CLICK LEFT GONZAGA?

We last had reports of her on the faculty there.  That post noted, "Perhaps, though, one sign that universities are no longer playpens for really stupid people will be when faculty hirings are not so obviously skewed toward annoyingly self-righteous ideologues."

Nearby Whitworth University remains a playpen for really stupid people.

A week after Whitworth University’s student government rejected a campus TPUSA chapter’s request to hold an event, the university reportedly canceled the Pride Club’s Queer Church event.

Although Whitworth is a private, religious institution not otherwise required to respect students’ expressive rights, the Spokane university affirms “freedom of expression for its students, staff and faculty” in line with the “Constitutional understandings of free expression.” It additionally commits that “students are free to express their views . . . on any matter of interest to the student body.” Given those commitments, both TPUSA and Pride Club must be able to express themselves freely without administrative interference.

According to Pride Club, the administration canceled Queer Church — advertised as a “celebration of LGBTQIA2S+ resilliency and love” featuring “food trucks, gender affirming resources, an open mic, and a drag workshop” — because “it doesn't align with the ethos of the university.” If this event was canceled based on the event’s content, it’s a clear violation of the university’s commitment to free expression.

What "ethos" are Whitworth aligning with, that of Dresden Technical University of ninety years ago?

More amusing, dear reader, is how quickly the censors came for Whitworth Pride.

In an interesting twist, the Pride Club itself expressed support for denying TPUSA’s event featuring Chinese dissident Xi Van Fleet. Pride Club’s disapproval of TPUSA’s free expression — just days before being censored themselves under similar circumstances — shows why students need not support certain speech while still vigorously defending the right to say it. Instead, when you call for censorship of certain views, censors will eventually suppress your views too.

Rather than show up to debate the speaker, who intended to compare struggle sessions during the Chinese cultural revolution with contemporary diversity education, Pride Club members lauded the cancellation of the visit.  The epistemic closure apparently crowds out any higher learning.  "Students who aim to express themselves in college and are considering what institution to attend should look elsewhere until Whitworth recommits to protecting expressive freedoms."

I should think so.  Cardinal Stritch shut down, and a quick look through The F.I.R.E.'s case file turned up no freedom of speech investigations involving them.  Let Whitworth fail its market tests.

SECOND SECTION: the people in charge at Whitworth realigned their ethos.  Worship at the Queer Church of your choice.