DePaul Doubles Down On Shapiro Ban

By John Minster

Originally published in The Daily Wire.

In an email sent Wednesday to faculty and staff members, DePaul University reaffirmed its commitment to destroying free speech on campus, doubling down on its widely criticized ban of Ben Shapiro. The email, sent by Vice President of Student Affairs Gene Zdziarski and Vice President of Facilities Operations Bob Janis, opened by saying, “Some of you may have seen news accounts of DYAF’s request to bring political commentator Ben Shapiro to speak on campus.  After careful consideration, DePaul has decided to deny this request.”

Janis and Zdziarski pointed specifically to Shapiro’s appearance at California State University- Los Angeles where violent leftists attempted to destroy the Young Americans for Freedom chapter’s event, physically barring students from entering the lecture hall and even pulling a fire alarm to try to shut down the speech as it was happening. Shapiro continued to speak, but afterwards was forced to be escorted out by his security team.

“Having reviewed recent reactions to this speaker at other campuses, and in particular his appearance at California State University – Los Angeles, our campus Public Safety Department concluded they could not provide sufficient security in the event of a similar situation at DePaul. Many are focused on this situation as solely a free speech concern, but as a university, we view such speaker requests from a number of viewpoints, including safety of our students, faculty, staff and property. That is our responsibility.”

If that is the case, DePaul has utterly failed as a school that purports to promote open discourse. Instead of standing up to vicious radicals, DePaul capitulates to them, handing out a rioters’ veto to anyone who might threaten to disrupt a speaking event.

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