Ann Coulter’s Visit to Notre Dame Goes Surprisingly Well
Ann Coulter probably didn’t expect the civil reception she got at Notre Dame this week. Kudos to the student body for respecting her right to speak even if they disagreed with her.
Susan Kruth of The FIRE reports.
Notre Dame Students Embrace Opportunity for Dialogue in Coulter Visit
The University of Notre Dame’s College Republicans student group invited conservative commentator Ann Coulter to speak to students Thursday night, and Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College student newspaper The Observer relayed refreshingly pro-free-speech remarks from students about the event. Even students who strongly disagreed with Coulter’s viewpoints recognized not just the College Republicans’ right to invite her but also the benefits that can come with controversial speakers like Coulter.
College Republicans President Mark Gianfalla told The Observer that he believed Coulter’s perspective would provide more diversity of opinion on an increasingly liberal campus. Others criticized Coulter as being offensive and hateful. Rather than call for her disinvitation, though, or shout her down, as students opposing controversial speakers in the past have done, members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) of Notre Dame held a silent demonstration outside. The student group’s president, Niciah Petrovic said:
“It’s in no way a protest and in no way are we opposed to her coming here and speaking,” she said. “We actually think this is a great opportunity to engage in dialogue about this type of speech, how it affects us, what the motivations are … and what we can learn from it.”
“I’m really thankful that she’s coming, honestly,” Petrovic said. “I’m thankful for the free speaker policy because this gives us the opportunity to engage ideas which may sound controversial.
“This is a university. We’re supposed to be engaged in this kind of intellectual dialogue all the time. This is a great opportunity for us to do that.”
This is precisely the right approach. During its non-disruptive demonstration, the NAACP of Notre Dame handed out flyers to counter some of the claims made by Coulter—demonstrating how the “marketplace of ideas” is supposed to function.
Tyler Bowen, Vice President of Notre Dame’s College Democrats, said that he too “vehemently disagree[d] with [Coulter’s] views,” but that he was “uncomfortable” with the idea of censoring her. Indeed, censorship should make all students uncomfortable, since there is no way of telling what viewpoint might be censored next.
Notre Dame Students Embrace Opportunity for Dialogue in Coulter Visit (FIRE)
Comments
I don’t understand college-aged students, especially for misunderstanding Ann Coulter and her ideas and opinions verbalized and written. Refusing to hear what she says and why, yet, the same type of students, however, accept e.g., the ND administration’s insistence that graduates and their Catholic families sit through a Commencement speech by a President who said he was okay with and voted for PARTIAL BIRTH abortions. So unbelievably selfish of this president to put those people through that. What a huge mistake on his part. If it were my graduate and I was a parent, we would have forfeited the graduation ceremony and let the silly administration know it and why we did and ask for a refund! Ann Coulter has a way of getting attention, which is often necessary for getting through thick skulls, owned often by people who are challenged when presented with or looking at and actually seeing something in a different way. I feel sorry for college-aged students whose parents are wasting their hard earned money on them. These students are incapable of learning about different ideas and to examine them and research the reasons why people have these ideas. It is so pathetic. Coulter sheds a light on this calamity.