[7 articles]
UW officials bullied into making foolish decisions
http://powelltribune.com/index.php/content/view/3271/44/
by Yancy Bonner
May 06, 2010
Last week William Ayers the controversial figure best known for his
association with the Vietnam-era anti-war group the Weather
Underground spoke at the University of Wyoming.
Ayers' speech which, ironically, focused on education issues
happened only after a federal judge forced the university to allow
him to speak on campus. The event was the culmination of a brief
legal battle which shined a bright spotlight on the university's poor
choice to kowtow to wealthy donors at the expense of free speech.
When Ayers' scheduled appearance was first announced in late March,
it ignited a firestorm of protest.
Despite the fact that the former 1960s radical was slated to speak
about education, angry e-mails and phone calls from parents, alumni
and donors prompted the UW Social Justice Research Center to withdraw
its invitation. When a student re-extended the invitation to Ayers,
UW officials refused to allow him to speak on campus, citing security
concerns.
Security apparently wasn't the primary concern. At the federal court
hearing, UW President Tom Buchanan testified that he received
objections to Ayers' appearance from three members of the UW board of
trustees ... as well as from several university donors, notably John
Martin, a wealthy Casper oil man.
Ayers addressed the issue at the beginning of his UW speech: "A donor
who gives to the University of Wyoming just as a donor who gives to
the University of Illinois or the University of Chicago or Harvard or
Yale or the University of California gives to the idea of the
university. That donor doesn't get to say 'By the way, you have to
hire this professor and this is the book the professor has to teach
out of.' What kind of university would that be?"
Wyoming Chief U.S. District Judge William Downes, who made the ruling
in the case, ultimately agreed and determined that the objections and
perceived threats amounted to a "heckler's veto" of free speech.
"If the First Amendment can't find sanctuary on a college campus,
where can it take refuge?" Judge Downes asked.
Indeed. In refusing to allow Ayers' speech, UW violated the
fundamental goals of an institution of higher learning to provide a
marketplace of free speech and ideas and to foster debate and the
development of critical thinking.
Judge Downes, a former Marine, said at the hearing, "I can scarcely
swallow the bile of my contempt" for the Weather
Underground. Nonetheless, he determined that past actions, no matter
how reprehensible, don't negate the right to free speech.
That's as it should be. Dick Cheney's appearance at UW in 2009 drew a
crowd of protesters. If campus conservative groups are successful in
bringing political commentator Ann Coulter to UW this fall, she most
certainly will be greeted with some protest. It's all part of what
you get and what you should get in a university experience.
Allowing donors, alumni and others to dictate who is and who isn't
allowed to speak is wrong, and it dilutes the quality of education UW
students receive.
The University of Wyoming's mission statement reads, in part, " ...
we seek to provide academic and co-curricular activities that will
... nurture an environment that values and manifests diversity, free
expression, academic freedom, personal integrity, and mutual respect."
University officials would do well to stand by that mission when
making future decisions.
--------
Judge clears way for ex-radical Ayers' speech at University of Wyoming
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/28/ayers.speech.ruling/?hpt=T2
April 28, 2010
Former Weather Underground militant Bill Ayers will appear at the
University of Wyoming on Wednesday after a federal judge ruled he
can't be barred from speaking on campus.
U.S. District Judge William Downes ordered Tuesday that the
university must take "all prudent steps" to guarantee Ayers' security
at his lecture.
The university had argued that "serious threats" prompted it to
cancel the appearance by Ayers, who is now a University of Illinois
education professor.
Downes' two-page order requires university officials to take "all
prudent steps to maintain order and provide for the security of
participants and spectators." University officials won't appeal the
order, said spokeswoman Jessica Lowell.
University President Tom Buchanan said the school "will do everything
in our power to provide a safe and secure environment for his visit."
Ayers became a footnote to the 2008 presidential campaign because of
his history of violent opposition to the Vietnam War and his
acquaintance with then-candidate Barack Obama.
Some prominent Republicans suggested that Ayers was a shadowy
influence on Obama during his 2008 presidential bid. GOP presidential
candidate John McCain urged Obama to "come clean" about his
relationship with Ayers and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin
accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists."
Ayers and Obama served on the Annenberg Challenge board and on the
board of another Chicago, Illinois, charitable foundation, the Woods
Fund, in the 1990s. A CNN review of the two men's history found
nothing inappropriate in their dealings, and Ayers later called the
attacks "a profoundly dishonest narrative."
David Lane, a lawyer for Ayers and University of Wyoming student
Meghan Lanker, called Tuesday's ruling "inspirational" and "a huge
victory for the First Amendment."
Ayers was scheduled to speak on education issues at the university in
early April, but the longstanding invitation drew controversy as the
date neared. Republican candidates for governor condemned the school
for inviting him, and in court papers Lanker stated she was told
Ayers' appearance "would inflame public sentiments" and hurt the university.
But university officials said they pulled the plug because they had
"serious threats and other information concerning potential violence"
and argued that Ayers could speak freely somewhere else.
"The UW administration did not bar Ayers from campus, but denied
permission to rent space for a large event on university property
because of serious security concerns," Buchanan said on the school's website.
Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a radical anti-war
group that claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on the U.S.
Capitol, the Pentagon and about 20 other targets. No one died in
those attacks, though three Weather Underground members blew
themselves up building another bomb in 1970.
Ayers and his wife, fellow Weather Underground member Bernadine
Dohrn, spent a decade on the run before surrendering to authorities
in 1980. The charges against him were dropped due to illegal wiretaps
and prosecutorial misconduct.
--------
Threats Are Not Enough to Stop Ayers's Speech, Judge Rules in Wyoming Case
http://chronicle.com/article/Threats-Are-Not-Enough-to-Stop/65270/
By Jill Laster
April 27, 2010
The University of Wyoming cannot refuse to rent its property for a
speech by the education scholar and former radical William Ayers, a
federal judge in Casper, Wyo., ruled on Tuesday.
The ruling, which the university is not contesting, was on a motion
related to a lawsuit that Mr. Ayers and a student filed against the university.
The case has its roots in an earlier engagement at Wyoming for Mr.
Ayers that was canceled.
The university's Social Justice Research Center had invited Mr.
Ayers, who is a professor of education at the University of Illinois
at Chicago, to speak in early April, but the center's director
canceled that appearance. The university cited safety concerns,
saying it had received a number of complaints and threatening
messages related to Mr. Ayers, who was a member during the Vietnam
War-era of an activist group known as the Weather Underground.
After the earlier event was canceled, a student, Meghan Lanker,
invited Mr. Ayers to speak on the campus in a student-sponsored event
that was scheduled for this Wednesday. She tried to rent a
multipurpose space in the UniWyo Sports Complex on the Laramie campus
for the event, but the university's general counsel advised her that
the venue would not be available, according to court documents.
Ms. Lanker and Mr. Ayers then sued the university, accusing it of
violating their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly.
They also filed a motion asking the judge to issue a temporary order
requiring the university to let the speech go forward at the sports
complex while the lawsuit is pending.
In the motion, Mr. Ayers and Ms. Lanker argued that the university's
actions were an unconstitutional attempt to censor Mr. Ayers "based
solely on his perceived message and his activist political background."
In a response filed with the court, the university had argued that it
could refuse to rent out the UniWyo Sports Complex to protect
students from potential violence.
In his ruling, Judge William Downes said that the evidence suggests
that the university attempted to ban Mr. Ayers from speaking because
of his history and not because of the vague safety concerns it
raised, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
"This court is of age to remember the Weather Underground," Judge
Downes said. "When his group was bombing the Capitol in 1971, I was
serving in the uniform of my country. Like many veterans, when I hear
that name," he said of Mr. Ayers, "I can scarcely swallow the bile of
my contempt for it. But Mr. Ayers is a citizen of the United States
who wishes to speak, and he need not offer any more justification than that."
The Weather Underground, which Mr. Ayers helped start in the late
1960s, was a radical group that bombed government buildings to
protest the Vietnam War. He was charged with conspiracy to bomb
government buildings, but the charges were later dropped.
The University of Wyoming said in a news release that it would comply
with the court's order and would provide "appropriate security" for
the speech at the UniWyo Sports Complex.
The Star-Tribune reported that it was unclear if Mr. Ayers would
speak at that venue on Wednesday; the university's lawyer said the
institution would try to make Ms. Lanker take out a liability
insurance policy before the event, but Judge Downes said that the
university could not place "unreasonable contractual demands" on Ms.
Lanker or Mr. Ayers.
The lawyer representing Mr. Ayers and Ms. Lanker could not be reached
for comment on Tuesday afternoon, but the Star-Tribune reported that
Ms. Lanker was thrilled by the ruling.
"I'm in shock, I'm floating, I'm on cloud nine, I'm excited," she
said. "This went better than I expected. I was expecting to win, but
I wasn't expecting to win so well, I guessto win and get everything
that we wanted."
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Ayers Speech At Univ. Of Wyo. Without Incident, US
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/28/ap/national/main6441789.shtml
Ayers Draws Crowd At University Of Wyoming Appearance, Few Protesters
And No Heckling
Apr. 29, 2010
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - In the end, the former 1960s radical delivered a
professional speech that drew more than a thousand listeners and very
few protesters.
Security was tight Wednesday as William Ayers spoke on education
concerns at the University of Wyoming after a federal judge forced
the school to host him.
UW President Tom Buchanan had decided not to allow the current
University of Illinois-Chicago professor to speak on campus over
concern that veiled threats the university had received from people
opposed to Ayers would result in violence.
But the event, which included bag and coat searches and bomb-sniffing
dogs, was held without any incidents at a campus gym that normally
hosts volleyball and wrestling matches.
Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, an anti-war group from the
Vietnam Era that claimed to be responsible for a series of bombings,
including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.
Ten protesters gathered in a snow storm outside where Ayers spoke,
carrying American flags and denouncing Ayers for his anti-war
activities in the Vietnam era.
Chesney Rathbun, a UW senior from Hulett, Wyo., held a sign reading
"Millions of veterans died for this?!?" The sign had pictures of the
Pentagon and what appeared to be a mug shot of Ayers. Rathbun said he
agreed with Ayers' right to speak, but opposed Ayers' viewpoints.
"Terrorism is not welcome here," Rathbun said. "Millions of veterans
died for the freedoms that our beautiful country affords them, and
he's taking advantage of (those freedoms)."
Ayers briefly commented about his First Amendment fight with the
university at the start of his 50-minute address, but the bulk of his
talk focused on his expertise in education issues and how the best
education opportunities should be available to rich and poor alike.
The hourlong question session that followed also mainly dealt with
education issues, and people began to trickle out of the gym. But to
a few questions on his Weather Underground days, Ayers acknowledged
that some of its actions were despicable and set a bad example. But
he stressed that that was in the context of thousands of people being
killed each week in Vietnam.
The reaction to his appearance contrasted with a visit by former Vice
President Dick Cheney in September after donating $3.2 million to
help build an international center on campus.
Cheney was welcomed by the college administration with open arms, but
heckled during his remarks by about 100 protesters in a crowd of about 500.
When Ayers spoke, he had no interruptions from about a dozen
protesters among the roughly 1,100 people who showed up.
Ayers' visit to Wyoming culminated a monthlong fight over whether he
should be allowed to speak at the state's only four-year public university.
The prospect of Ayers' visit provoked a tide of angry reaction from
some critics in Wyoming, a conservative-leaning state that has voted
for every Republican presidential candidate since 1968.
Ayers initially was invited to the Wyoming campus by the UW Social
Justice Research Center, but the privately endowed organization
canceled the invitation because of hundreds of critical phone calls
and e-mails.
Student Meg Lanker then invited Ayers to speak on campus, but
Buchanan refused to rent out space for the event, citing safety concerns.
Lanker and Ayers sued the university, saying it violated their
constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. They suggested the
university was more concerned about losing donors than safety.
"A donor who gives to the University of Wyoming - just as a donor who
gives to the University of Illinois or the University of Chicago or
Harvard or Yale or the University of California - gives to the idea
of the university," Ayers said Wednesday. "That donor doesn't get to
say 'By the way, you have to hire this professor and this is the book
the professor has to teach out of.' What kind of university would that be?"
Ayers' past became a political issue during the 2008 presidential
campaign because President Barack Obama had served with Ayers on the
board of a Chicago charity. Republican vice presidential candidate
Sarah Palin accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists."
Obama has condemned Ayers' radical activities, and there's no
evidence they were ever close friends or that Ayers advised Obama on policy.
Other universities have canceled Ayers speeches recently, including
the University of Nebraska and Boston College.
"In those two instances the students didn't decide to push it, and in
this instance a student decided to push it, and I joined that
effort," Ayers said.
--------
Ideas Do Matter
http://thebulletin.us/articles/2010/05/03/commentary/op-eds/doc4bdf302b728b9622695402.txt
By BRADLEY HARRINGTON
Monday, May 03, 2010
"When loyalty to an unyielding purpose is dropped by the virtuous,
it's picked up by scoundrels." --Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
--
For those who remember the university "Free Speech" riots of the
1960s, the recent University of Wyoming (UW) protest can't help but
introduce a small sense of déjà vu: "Some University of Wyoming
students and faculty held a rally Thursday [Apr. 22nd] denouncing the
college's refusal to allow former 1960s radical William Ayers to
speak on campus." ("Students protest censorship at UW," Wyoming
Tribune Eagle, Apr. 23rd.)
What has this rally's attendees so upset about the banning of Ayers?
Meg Lanker, UW student and one of the rally organizers, said that
students "would have been able to evaluate his ideas, and the
university does not give us students the intellectual benefit of the doubt."
OK, let's evaluate Mr. Ayers' ideas; that's easy enough, as he has
aired them for decades.
In 1969, for instance, Mr. Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground,
a self-described communist revolutionary group, with the goal of
overthrowing the "capitalist" U.S. government and establishing a
communist society in its place.
Do you understand what communism is, Ms. Lanker? What it preaches and
how it is practiced? Communists believe that all individuals should
be equal--and, to the extent that they aren't, will be made equal at
the point of a gun. Communists believe that man's life belongs to
society, and that all private property--including yours, including
your very life--is to be controlled by the rest of society, i.e., the state.
Wherever communism has been practiced, the results have always been a
sea of human blood. In the 20th Century, with thanks to communist
revolutions in Soviet Russia and Red China alone, it has been
documented that more than 60 million human beings were slaughtered in
purges, gulags, forced-labor camps, man-made famines and by firing
squads--nearly a dozen times the number of Jews executed by Hitler's
Nazi regime.
Nor have Mr. Ayers' beliefs mellowed over the years: right now, to
this very day, Mr. Ayers' office door at the University of Illinois,
Chicago, is decorated with a picture of Che Guevara--Castro's hit man
and the person responsible for exterminating thousands of human
beings during and after Cuba's communist revolution.
And that red star you see in the upper left-hand corner of Mr. Ayers'
blog site? That's the Soviet Red Star--the same star that adorned the
tanks that ruthlessly rolled into Eastern Europe during World War II,
Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Tanks which subjected
over 300 million human beings to barbarically-enforced subjugation
for decades. No, Mr. Ayers means it all right.
Are these the ideas you believe would benefit humanity, Ms. Lanker?
Are these the social practices you think we should be advocating and
discussing? Is this the kind of "intellectual benefit of the doubt"
you profess to grant to murderers, thugs and thieves? And do you
seriously presume that it is the role of a university administration
to open its campus doors to such types of people? Shucks, why not
just invite Castro, Kim Jung-il or Hu Jintao to share their "ideas"
for "evaluation" as well? Why screw around with wanna-be punks like
William Ayers, when you can have the real thing, blood, guts and all?
While I can under stand your poor grasp of the implications of that
which Mr. Ayers promotes and advocates--being young and a student,
after all, and presumably enrolled in college to gain a comprehension
of the wider world around you--that same leeway does not extend
itself to the two UW faculty members who also attended your event.
Donal O'Toole, for example, professor of veterinary science, said:
"We're just asking Tom [Buchanan, UW president] to treat this like a
real university." Translation: a "real university" would be one that
grants an aura of respectability and credibility to communist
gangsters, as if the difference between individual rights and mass
annihilation were merely an issue of opinion.
And this--for those who seek to understand the manner in which such
unspeakable atrocities were ever allowed to occur--explains the
fashion in which communist brutes have been able to seize and
maintain power in their client states for decades: because the good,
which should have known better, chose to whitewash the facts of
reality with apologies, claims of "agrarian reform" and
characterizations of "youthful idealism" instead of calling
institutionalized butchery what it is: butchery. It is an aura of
respectability and credibility that the butchers could never have
earned on their own merits. And we wonder at the spread of the rule
of brute force? You are absolutely correct on one key point, Ms.
Lanker: ideas do matter.
Mr. Ayers, of course, is well aware of the depth of today's
intellectual vacuum, for it takes a special kind of boldness to sue
UW in the name of "free speech"--while admiring totalitarian
dictatorships where the serfs who dare to exercise it receive
imprisonment, beatings and firing squads for their efforts. Now that
is "government persecution."
Do you want to make an honest difference in the world, Ms. Lanker? Do
you want to fight for ideas? If so, don't you think the steps of the
Chinese embassy would have been a better place to hold your rally?
--
Bradley Harrington is a former United States Marine and a free-lance
writer who lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
--------
William Ayers Wyoming Speech Concludes Without Incident
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/29/william-ayers-wyoming-spe_n_556881.html
BOB MOEN
04/29/10
LARAMIE, Wyo. A stack of e-mails released this week show Gov. Dave
Freudenthal was among those who had supported canceling a talk by
William Ayers at the University of Wyoming.
In response to a records request by The Associated Press, the
university released the e-mails from the governor's chief of staff,
Chris Boswell, and others regarding Ayers' visit.
Boswell said in one e-mail before the April 5 speech was canceled
that Freudenthal would "strongly support the UW administration
pulling the plug on Ayers, but recognizes that may not be possible."
"He'd publicly support the decision to pull (of course) and, as an
alternative, could even personally call for the rescinding of the
invitation" if UW President Tom Buchanan preferred, Boswell wrote.
Boswell said Thursday the governor was telling Buchanan "I've got your back."
"If it would help the president get through the situation, the
governor was willing to do that," Boswell said.
Ayers spoke at UW on Wednesday night after a federal judge forced the
school to host him. The speech culminated a monthlong fight over
whether Ayers should be allowed to speak at the state's only
four-year public university.
In the 1960s, Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, an anti-war
group that claimed responsibility for a series of nonfatal bombings,
including explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.
Ayers' past became a campaign issue during the 2008 presidential race
because he had served with now President Barack Obama on the board of
a Chicago charity. Former Republican vice presidential candidate
Sarah Palin accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists."
Now a professor with the University of Illinois-Chicago, Ayers
specializes in education issues.
The university had cited security concerns in canceling the April 5
talk and not allowing Ayers to speak at a multipurpose gym when he
was invited separately by student Meg Lanker. That decision prompted
Lanker and Ayers to file the lawsuit, saying the university violated
their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.
Last year, the UW Social Justice Research Center invited Ayers to
speak on campus this spring, but the prospect of his visit provoked a
tide of angry phone calls and e-mails. The privately endowed center
canceled its invitation.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jim McBride, who is an
ex-officio member of the UW Board of Trustees along with the
governor, also e-mailed board members, saying UW stood to lose
"millions" by allowing Ayers to speak.
While some e-mails protested the university's decision to cancel
Ayers' speech, most objected to him being invited in the first place.
The tenor of the e-mails ranged from expressions of mild displeasure
to veiled threats of violence. One e-mail said those who invited
Ayers "should eat a mouthful of buckshot."
--------
Peaceful assembly denounces professor's radical past
http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2010/04/29/news/01top_04-29-10.txt
4/29/10
By Bill McCarthy
[email protected]
LARAMIE -- Ten protesters lined the sidewalk leading to the gymnasium
where Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers spoke Wednesday night.
"We just want to let them know that we don't support (Ayers')
ideology," said Tate Smith, a University of Wyoming student from Rye, Colo.
Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, an anti-war group from the
Vietnam Era that claimed responsibility for several nonfatal bombings
of public buildings in protest of the war during the early 1970s.
"We don't want to offend anybody," Smith said, emphasizing the
protest was to be peaceful.
While people say the past is the past, Smith said, the problem with
Ayers is that he is unrepentant.
"He's a terrorist, and he doesn't regret setting off the bombs," said
Katie Schade, a UW student from Fort Sumner, N.M., who also protested.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday in Casper that the university had to
allow Ayers to speak on campus Wednesday. Ayers had been invited,
uninvited and invited again to speak at UW over the past month or so
by different groups.
He has been invited and then uninvited to speak on other campuses, as well.
Ayers, a professor in the University of Illinois-Chicago College of
Education, spoke at the Wyoming UniWyo Sports Complex.
Schade and Smith said he should not have been invited in the first place.
"He's got his right to free speech, and we have the right to express
our freedom of speech," Schade said.
John Brengnan, who graduated from UW in 2005, said, "Bombing public
buildings -- that's terrorism. McVeigh did that."
Timothy McVeigh was executed in 2001 for bombing the Alfred P. Murrah
Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people.
Though no one was killed in the Weather Underground bombings,
Brengnan said, there easily could have been deaths.
Senior citizen Glee Folsom made the trip over from Cheyenne to
protest, as well.
"I'm old. I remember his bombings," she said. "He has no business
influencing young people.
"Our country's in trouble, and we have people like this running
around," Folsom added. "It's just not right."
Police and their dogs were visible in numbers, but all was peaceful.
UW spokeswoman Jessica Lowell said security was the same as when
other high-profile visitors speak on campus, such as former Vice
President Dick Cheney.
.
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