Duke Chooses Censorship

That citadel of diversity in Durham, N. C., does not want to carry tolerance too far. “Duke University made it to the Final Four in college basketball this weekend and officials there apparently think it’s all right to root for the team, but not to use the campus women’s center if you’re pro-life,” Life News reported on March 29, 2010. “Duke officials prevented the pro-life group on campus from using the facility for an event on motherhood.”

“The Duke University Women’s Center has canceled an event about motherhood because the sponsor was engaging in pro-life expression elsewhere on campus. A Women’s Center representative told Duke Students for Life (DSFL) that ‘we have a problem’ and an ideological ‘conflict’ with the event, which was supposedly canceled to protect Duke women from encountering the event during the group’s ‘traumatizing’ pro-life ‘Week for Life.’”

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is conducting an independent investigation of the incident.

Update:  The director of the women’s center at Duke has apologized to the Students for Life there.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.