UW announces cancellation of Bill Ayers visit
http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2010/03/30/news/doc4bb24d5ba2111890668830.txt
By AARON LeCLAIR
March 30, 2010
The University of Wyoming announced Tuesday that a public lecture by
William "Bill" Ayers, a former 1970s radical antiwar protestor who is
now a university professor, has been cancelled.
Ayers, 65, a distinguished professor of education and senior scholar
at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), had been scheduled to
give a public lecture from 4-6 p.m. Monday in the UW Education Auditorium.
The public lecture had been sponsored by the UW Social Justice
Research Center, which is a privately endowed center that studies
problems of oppression and inequalities among different social groups.
Titled "Trudge Toward Freedom: Educational Research in the Public
Interest," the talk would have focused on what makes education in a
democracy different from other societies, as well as the importance
of teachers seeing their students are more than just students, but
whole human beings.
UW released a statement on its Web site on Tuesday afternoon
explaining why the Social Justice Research Center had decided to
cancel Ayers' visit.
In the statement, the director of the center, UW Educational Studies
chair Francisco Rios, apologized to the university community for any
harm that may have come to it, and cited personal and professional
reasons including safety concerns for the cancellation.
In reponse, UW President Tom Buchanan said, "I appreciate the
consideration for the university that the re-evaluation demonstrated."
Buchanan thanked Rios for taking the initiative and for his
willingness to respect the interests of the UW community, including
statewide constituencies.
"Re-evaluation of this event was unavoidable. I'm satisfied with the
outcome," he said. "Academic freedom is a core principle of any
institution of higher education. But with that freedom comes an
obligation to exercise free thought and free speech in concert with
mutual respect and acknowledgement of broader resource and security
impacts on the campus. The exercise of freedom requires a
commensurate dose of responsibility."
Buchanan dismissed the notion that UW caved in to public pressure to
cancel Ayer's visit, even though the university had received hundreds
of calls and e-mails on Monday and Tuesday that were mostly against Ayers.
"Observers in and outside of the university would be incorrect to
conclude that UW simply caved in to external pressure. Rather, I
commended the director of the center for a willingness to be
sensitive to the outpouring of criticism, evaluate the arguments, and
reconsider the invitation."
UW Media Relations director Jim Kearns said the university had
received 300 calls and e-mails by Tuesday, most of which were against
Ayers' visit.
"The vast majority were against," Kearn said. "There were a few supporters."
According to the statement, Rios had cited "safety concerns" as one
of the reasons for cancelling Ayers' visit to UW. When asked what
that meant, Kearns said he could not comment on the statement because
Rios did not elaborate.
"I don't know that that means," Kearns said. "That was his words."
Kearns also couldn't answer when the last time was that UW had
cancelled an event or public lecture.
"I'm sure there's been cancellations in the past," he said. "We
don't keep a record of such things."
Ayers is considered to be a leader in elementary educational reform
and social justice issues in education.
In addition to teaching and writing books, he is the founder of both
the Small Schools Workshop (a resource for the design, restructuring
and creation of small schools of 250-300 students in a heterogeneous
mix) and the Center for Youth and Society (an institution of urban
education innovation and advocacy).
Before his career in academia, however, Ayers was the co-founder of
the Weather Underground, a radical anti-war group that claimed
responsibility for a series of bombings of government buildings,
police stations and banks in the early-to-mid-1970s.
Ayers participated in the bombings of the New York City Police
Department in 1970, U.S. Capital Building in 1971 and Pentagon in 1972.
In addition, Ayers or the Weather Underground were suspected of the
fatal 1970 bombing of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Park
Station, which resulted in the death of Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell, 43.
However, neither Ayers nor the Weather Underground were ever charged
or convicted for the SFPD bombing.
In both his book "Fugitive Days" and in an op-ed that was published
in the New York Times on Dec. 6, 2008, Ayers notes that no one was
killed or hurt in the Weather Underground's bombings.
Beginning in 1972, Ayers was a fugitive of justice before turning
himself in to the authorities in 1980.
A number of weapons- and bomb-related charges against Ayers were
dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct. Instead, he was convicted of
possession of explosives and served no time in prison.
Ayers' radical past came up in the 2008 presidential election, when
he was linked to then-candidate Barack Obama. They had served
together on the board of a Chicago charity, and Ayers had hosted a
meet-the-candidate session for Obama at his homein the mid-1990s when
Obama first ran for office.
Obama went on to condemn Ayers' radical activities, and there was no
evidence they were even close friends or that Ayers had advised Obama
on policy, according to The Associated Press.
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Bill Ayers to give lecture at UW
REMY PELZER
March 27, 2010
CHEYENNE Bill Ayers, a professor and former domestic terrorist who
became a household name during the 2008 presidential election, will
visit the University of Wyoming next month to discuss education and
social-justice issues.
Ayers will deliver a lecture titled "Trudge toward Freedom: Moral
Commitment and Ethical Action" at UW's Education Auditorium on April 5.
The following day, he will participate in a teleconference with
Wyoming school principals.
His visit comes as part of a biannual lecture series put on by the
UW's Social Justice Research Center, a privately endowed center that
studies problems of oppression and inequalities among different
social groups in society.
No public funds are being used to pay for Ayers' visit, said UW
spokeswoman Jessica Lowell.
Even so, Ayers' presence on campus is sure to spark outrage among
conservatives. In the late 1960s, Ayers helped found the militant
left-wing terrorist group the Weather Underground, which protested
the Vietnam War by bombing the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol and other
government buildings.
Ayers found himself back in the headlines two years ago, when
Republican John McCain's presidential campaign highlighted Ayers'
ties to then-presidential nominee Barack Obama. The two lived in the
same neighborhood in Chicago's South Side and once worked on the same
charity board, and Ayers hosted a small meet-the-candidate event for
Obama in 1995.
Obama, who was a young boy when the Weather Underground bombings took
place, denounced Ayers' terrorist past and said that Ayers played no
part in his presidential campaign.
These days, Ayers has become a respected academic. As distinguished
professor of education and senior university scholar at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, he studies, among other things,
teaching about social justice, urban educational reform and children
in trouble with the law.
Ayers is a founder of the "small schools" movement, which seeks to
replace sprawling, crowded urban schools with small, student-centered
facilities, often built around specific focuses such as
African-American studies and the United Nations.
--
Contact Jeremy Pelzer at jeremy.pelzer@trib.com or 307-632-1244.
--------
Bill Ayers to speak at UW
http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2010/03/27/news/doc4bad8cfbe4498248742567.txt
By AARON LeCLAIR
March 27, 2010
An elementary education reform theorist who was once a member of a
radical anti-war activist group will speak about education reform and
social justice at the University of Wyoming in April.
William "Bill" Ayers, 65, a leading education theorist and founder
and former member of the Weather Underground, will give a public
lecture from 4-6 p.m. on April 5 in the Education Auditorium.
Sponsored by the UW Social Justice Research Center, Ayers' lecture
will be based on his article "Trudge Toward Freedom: Educational
Research in the Public Interest," which can be found online at
http://www.uwyo.edu/sjrc.
A distinguished professor of education and senior scholar at the
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and founder of both the Small
Schools Workshop and the Center for Youth and Society, Ayers' work
focuses on equity and social justice in education.
"What I particularly like about him is he questions taken-for-granted
assumptions about how things should be or how things are," Francisco
Rios, department head of Educational Studies, said. "And, in
questioning these taken-for-granted assumptions … he knows that they
oftentimes impede our understanding of how to do education more justly."
Rios said Ayers' prolific career in the fields of education reform
and social justice made him the obvious choice to speak about the issues at UW.
"I've known him for a while … and I've known of his work for about
the last 15 years in education," he said. "Since we're a social
justice research center, we thought he was an appropriate person to
come in and talk about social justice issues."
In addition to teaching and research, Ayers' literary career is
another factor that makes him the ideal person to speak about social
justice and education, Rios said.
"He's a prolific writer. He has just finished editing a book called
'The Handbook of Social Justice and Education,'" Rios said. "The book
was kind of an impetus for us to say why don't we bring him as one of
our keynote scholars this year."
In addition to being a leader in education reform and social justice,
Ayers is known for having been a radical anti-Vietnam war activist
through the 1960s and '70s.
Ayers was the founder of the Weather Underground, a radical, group
active from 1969-77.
The Weather Underground, is best known for its campaign of bombings
of empty offices in government buildings and banks throughout the
early- and mid-1970s.
The federal charges that were later filed against Ayers for the
bombings were dropped in 1979 due to the FBI's use of illegal
surveillance tactics.
Ayers turned himself in to the authorities in 1980. He pleaded guilty
to possession of explosives and served no time, according to a Boston
Globe article published on Sept. 19, 1993.
Many people who watched the 2008 primary and general presidential
election will remember Ayers being called a "domestic terrorist" by
Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates Sen. John
McCain, R-Arizona, and former Alaska governor and current Fox News
analyst Sarah Palin.
However, while some people still regard Ayers as a notorious figure,
his past activities with the Weather Underground are not the focus of
his public lecture at UW, Rios said.
"That's not, really, going to be the focus of his talk," he said. "I
hope people would be open minded about hearing him talk about
schooling, education and the kinds of injustices he sees."
As a tenured professor at UIC, Ayers teaches courses in interpretive
research, urban school change and youth and the modern predicament.
For more information about the public lecture, call 766-3422, send
e-mail to sjrc@uwyo.edu or go to http://www.uwyo.edu/sjrc/.
--
Aaron LeClair's e-mail address is lbedit7@laramieboomerang.com
--------
Statement on Professor William Ayers's Visit to UW
http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=41181
By Myron B. Allen, Provost
University of Wyoming
March 26, 2010
The Social Justice Research Center, a unit of the University of
Wyoming, has invited University of Illinois - Chicago Professor
William Ayers to speak on UW's Laramie campus on April 5 and 6.
Support for Professor Ayers's visit will come from the budget of the
Center, which is funded from an endowed gift made to the university
by an anonymous donor.
Professor Ayers is a controversial figure, in part because of his
association, four decades ago, with the Weather Underground. Many
will remember that his name arose during the 2008 presidential
primaries, when opponents of then-candidate Barack Obama criticized
his contacts with Professor Ayers.
Ayers earned a doctorate from Columbia University in 1987 and now
holds the title of distinguished professor of education at the
University of Illinois-Chicago. His teaching focuses on issues
related to social justice and educational reform. He has published
and spoken widely. Furthermore, he currently serves as a vice
president of the American Educational Research Association, a
national professional society.
Professor Ayers is not the first controversial figure to speak at UW.
He is not even the first UW speaker associated with past actions that
some find deeply objectionable. With any luck, he won't be our last
controversial speaker, on the left or on the right. An academic
department's invitation to speak is not the same as an institutional
endorsement: part of UW's mission is to provide a neutral forum in
which to examine ideas. Of special interest are the ideas of people
whose professional work has had impact on important areas of human endeavor.
The University of Wyoming has not distanced itself from controversy
in the past and has been fortunate to host a range of speakers from a
variety of backgrounds. It is clear to us that a university's role is
to teach, not to indoctrinate. Some have insisted that UW cancel
Professor Ayers's visit. We expect a higher level of discourse from
our students and from the American public. And we are confident that
the best way for our students to develop the judgment and
independence of thought to evaluate ideas critically is to be exposed
to a wide range of viewpoints.
--------
The hecklers' veto
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/hecklers+veto/2727189/story.html
Cancellation of speeches for 'security reasons' allows the most
violent among us to determine what we can hear
By Matthew P. Harrington
March 26, 2010
The University of Ottawa's cancellation of a speech by U.S. author
Ann Coulter reveals a disturbing trend in political correctness on
North American university campuses.
Coulter had been invited to the university campus by a conservative
group, but the event had to be cancelled after it became clear that
neither the university nor local police would guarantee her safety.
The tactics of Coulter's opponents follow a long line of similar
incidents. Fearful of being labelled "intolerant" - the most
devastating accusation that can be laid at anyone around universities
- opponents of speakers frequently seek to manufacture a situation in
which "public safety" is a risk, thereby giving the administration an
excuse to cancel the event.
The phenomenon affects speakers on both the left and the right,
although it appears that the tactic has been most effectively used in
Canada against those whose views are more conservative than those of
the student body.
The cancellation of Coulter's speech is the most recent example, but
one ought not to forget Montreal's own ignominious history in this
regard. In 2002, Concordia University cancelled a speech by Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Muslim and other students
rioted. In late February, York University cancelled an event planned
by a coalition of Christian and Jewish organizations to highlight
"Canadian values," after the university, fearful of the actions of
opponents of Israel, said it could not guarantee the safety of the
event's speakers without a large security and police presence. The
university demanded that the student organizers bear the costs of any
additional security. Unable to come up with the funds, the students
cancelled the event.
In 2006, a speech by an advocate of stricter controls on immigration
at Columbia University had to be shut down after students from the
Chicano Caucus and the International Socialist Organization stormed
the stage and threatened him. No action was taken against those
involved. Similarly, in October 2008, the University of Nebraska
cancelled a speech by former Weather Underground leader William
Ayers, citing unspecified "safety concerns." Ayers, an avowed
leftist, had been closely associated with the bombing of several
government buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. His appearance had been
opposed by conservatives both at the university and in the state legislature.
In effect, cancelling speeches on campus because of "public safety
concerns" is a soft form of censorship. This tactic permits feckless
university administrators to have it both ways. On the one hand, they
can avoid the chaos that sometimes accompanies an appearance by a
controversial speaker, while at the same time pretending that they
are defenders of free speech.
"My hands were tied!" a president can say. "I had to avoid a
dangerous situation!" As result, a university president gets to
appease faculty and students who oppose a speaker, while obtaining
cover from the inevitable outrage of alumni, donors, and public officials.
The proper reaction of university officials at Ottawa and other
institutions faced with a similar situation is to make it clear to
both students and faculty that attempts to disrupt such events will
result in dismissal and, where appropriate, criminal prosecution.
University officials need to make it clear to opponents of particular
speakers that the proper response to controversial speech is more
speech. Students and faculty who oppose the Ann Coulters of this
world are perfectly entitled to have their own events and invite
someone to rebut Coulter's opinions. They ought not, however, be
permitted to use unspecified threats to disrupt a speaker's right to
present controversial views.
Indeed, one of the great ironies of the Ann Coulter controversy is
the condescending tone taken by François Houle, Ottawa's provost,
toward Coulter before the event. In a letter to Coulter, Houle
lectured her about the need to weigh her words "with respect and
civility in mind" and insisted that the University of Ottawa has a
"strong tradition" of "restraint, respect and consideration in
expressing even provocative and controversial opinions." He further
urged her to "respect that Canadian tradition while on our campus."
Would that the provost had delivered that same lecture to his own students.
The safety excuse cannot continue to be a device for censorship by
university officials. Cancelling speeches or insisting that student
groups pay the cost of added security merely ensures that popular
speech is the only speech permitted at institutions supposedly
dedicated to the free exchange of ideas. More important, if we
condition the right to speech on the reaction of the audience, we
actually promote the violation of speech rights. Cancelling speeches
because of threats of violence, or because some segment of the
audience will be insulted, creates a "heckler's veto" in which the
most sensitive or violent members of a potential audience are
effectively allowed to determine what others might hear.
--
Matthew P. Harrington is a law professor at the Université de Montreal.
.
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