Is the Middlebury College Faculty to Blame for Violent Protest of Conservative Speaker?

From the Boston Magazine:

That is why what happened to Murray at Middlebury last week is so alarming. At the invitation of a conservative student group, Murray arrived on campus to deliver a lecture and engage in a discussion with Allison Stanger, a liberal-leaning member of the school’s political science department. As expected, protesters arrived. They shouted and loudly chanted, “racist, sexist, anti-gay, Charles Murray, go away,” until school administrators were forced to move the event to an undisclosed location and broadcast it. After the presentation wrapped up, protesters on campus surrounded Murray and Stanger. Things turned physical: Someone grabbed Stanger’s hair as she was reportedly attempting to shield Murray from the mob and twisted her neck, which resulted in a trip to the hospital and a neck brace…

Awful as it may be, this is only the latest evidence of how far viewpoint diversity has declined on the campuses of our colleges and universities. Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton publicly stated that the college “failed to live up to our core values,” and pundits from across the ideological spectrum have weighed in on the mess. What has been missing from all of the reporting and editorials, though, is any meaningful discussion of the role Middlebury’s faculty played in this episode.

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