MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - A student organization has invited a controversial guest speaker back to Middlebury College this spring, three years after his appearance sparked a rowdy protest in which a professor was injured.
The Middlebury College Republicans have invited Charles Murray to speak on campus on March 31, the college confirmed Wednesday.
A planned 2017 speech by Murray was disrupted by demonstrators who shouted him down and a subsequent confrontation in which a Middlebury professor was injured. Murray is a social scientist who critics say uses pseudoscience to link intelligence and race in the 1994 book “The Bell Curve.” which he co-authored.
Afterward, 41 students were disciplined for taking part in the first stage of the protest in which demonstrators prevented Murray from speaking. An additional 26 students faced more serious consequences for actions in the hall and outside the building.
In an op-ed in the school newspaper on Wednesday, Dominic Aiello and Brendan Philbin, co-presidents of the Middlebury College Republicans, said they believed that how the administration and protesters handled the 2017 event “was a stain on Middlebury’s reputation and a betrayal of its mission.”
“For the Middlebury community to live up to its mission statement, it must be willing and able to listen to, understand and challenge controversial ideas like those put forth by Murray,” they wrote.
Murray has been invited to discuss his upcoming book, “Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class.”
Many details and logistics were still being discussed, the college said in a written statement. The student organization and its advisor, former Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, were working with the school’s event policy committee, Middlebury said.
It added that Middlebury’s protections of open expression - “by providing a forum or allowing nonviolent public demonstrations - should not be interpreted as approval or endorsement of the views expressed.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.