Front Page Magazine
Benjamin Kepple - November 1998

LEFTIST STUDENTS PROTESTING outside at a conservative event is a routine occurrence on American campuses these days. But the last thing Accuracy in Academia expected when it held its "A Place at the Table: Conservative Ideas in Higher Education" conference at Columbia this past weekend was a compliant university administration, gladly placating demonstrators by shutting the event down.

The conference, which featured such noted conservative speakers as Proposition 209 author Ward Connerly, best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza, and U.S. News and World Report columnist John Leo, got off to a rocky start when approximately 100 students protested Connerly’s kickoff speech at Columbia’s Faculty House. Early Saturday morning campus security officials, supposedly fearing an influx of protestors, barred all non-Columbia students from the campus—tossing out attendees who had traveled to the conference from all over the Northeast. Thirty NYPD officers helped block the Faculty House entrance. "It really looked like a police state," said Accuracy in Academia spokesman Michael Capel.

Dan Flynn, Executive Director of AIA, remarked that "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. Banning the spectators instead of the speakers is certainly a unique way to censor an event."

When conference organizers attempted to regroup in nearby Morningside park, irate demonstrators followed, shouting rhythmic slogans. They shouted down the speakers, who tried in vain to carry on without sound equipment.

Protestors claimed victory in the debacle. According to the Columbia Spectator, the president of the Black Students’ Union, Roxanne Smithers, said: "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."

One Spectator columnist even referred to some students’ desire for "rational debate" as "a dark, dangerous point of view" at a time "when the right wing in this country is growing more powerful on a daily basis."

The setback will undoubtedly prove costly for Columbia, however. "We had a contract, which they breached," Capel said, noting that AIA spent tens of thousands to hold the conference. Moreover, there is no telling how much revenue will be lost from alumni donations, or how much the exceedingly negative publicity will hurt the university.

Mr. Kepple is FrontPage’s Associate Editor.

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