\doc\web\98\10\aia.txt Columbia University Censors Conservative Conference Accuracy in Academia November 18, 1998 Students Forced to Hold Event in Park Columbia University administrators summarily barred Subject: [Upstream] Articles (http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1998/11/18/45908) NewsMax Home · Archives · Inside Cover · TalkMax · Liners · Comment Max · News Links · Contact Us! Columbia University Censors Conservative Conference Accuracy in Academia November 18, 1998 Students Forced to Hold Event in Park Columbia University administrators summarily barred attendees from entering campus hours before a weekend conservative conference was to begin. According to the campus daily, "administrators decided late Friday night to effectively ban the second day of the conference." "In the Soviet Union you would expect something like this because it was a totalitarian country," observed Catherine Lev, a Fordham Law School student and Russian immigrant, who was turned away by Columbia security. "In the United States, however, it is very surprising that a university would stamp out a group’s right to gather and speak. I thought I escaped totalitarianism when I left Russia only to find it glaring right back in my face here at Columbia University." Accuracy in Academia had signed a contract and paid Columbia to hold "A Place at the Table: Conservative Ideas in Higher Education" on campus Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14. The event was to feature Ward Connerly, Dinesh D’Souza, Candace de Russy, John Leo, Reginald Jones, and other speakers. After about 100 students protested Friday’s keynote address by Connerly, university administrators decided to bar all non-Columbia students from the campus on Saturday. This would prevent the conference from taking place, as students from around New York City and the northeast had traveled to Columbia for the event. "Essentially, Columbia told us that the speakers could still deliver their remarks, but the people who had traveled to the conference could not gather to hear them," explained AIA Executive Director Dan Flynn. "Banning the spectators instead of the speakers is certainly a unique way to censor an event." University security called conference organizers after midnight on Friday to inform them that registrants for the gathering would not be allowed into the conference site. Undeterred, AIA held Saturday ’s session at Morningside Park adjacent to campus. The cancellation placated protesters, who claimed victory in silencing conservative speakers. Roxanne Smithers, president of the Black Students' Association, told the Spectator, "I thought it was great. They were entirely dislocated. The black people have been dislocated for years, and they were dislocated for a couple of hours. It doesn’t equalize it, but it’s a start." Franklin Amoo added, "I’ll do whatever needs to be done [to stop the conference], in order to make sure they know their sentiments are not shared." "We got [D’Souza] into Morningside Park, which Columbia doesn’t pay attention to anyway," proclaimed Adrienne Brown, who took pride in preventing D’Souza from speaking. "This is an alcove where homeless people sleep and piss." The approximately 80 protestors that reconvened on Saturday shouted down Dinesh D’Souza’s lecture. Included among the signs that were held up: ACCESS DENIED, WE WIN: RACISTS NOT ALLOWED AT COLUMBIA, and THERE’S NO PLACE AT THE TABLE FOR HATE. "We titled the conference ‘A Place at the Table: Conservative Ideas in Higher Education’ because we thought that students should be exposed to more than just a narrow range of ideas," explained AIA Executive Director Dan Flynn. "Quite clearly, Columbia’s administration does not agree that conservatives have a place at their table." One Columbia student, who asked to remain anonymous, contacted AIA and stated, "I did not attend the conference for a number of reasons, the most important being that I did not feel it would be good for my academic future and safety." Accuracy in Academia is planning to file suit, educate Columbia’s alumni about the incident, and return to the campus with another conference. For further information, contact Michael Capel at 1-800-787-0429. Accuracy in Academia is an educational organization seeking the return of higher education to its original mission: the search for truth. Through conferences, speakers, and its publication, Campus Report, AIA exposes instances of free speech violations, rigged admissions programs, and classroom bias. NewsMax Home · Archives · Inside Cover · TalkMax · Liners · Comment Max · News Links · Contact Us! © 1998, NewsMax.com Site Design by David Grumm / Luke Kelly