The emails also show that public anger about the Ingle case spilled over to parts of the university that had nothing to do with it. But, he said, “in matters that involve the fundamental values of IUP such as open discussion, civil dialogue, and reasoned disagreement in the service of learning, I will take the risks rather than rest on the safe but ‘foolish consistency that is the hobgoblin of little minds.’”Įmail records obtained by The Chronicle show that Driscoll closely monitored news coverage of the Ingle controversy, even compiling and distributing article links to his colleagues. In an email to the campus, Driscoll wrote that he knew he could be criticized for departing from standard procedure by bypassing Ingle’s disciplinary hearing. Driscoll, the university’s president, opted to allow Ingle to return to the class. The publicity Ingle generated for his cause led to a public outcry over a student who was allegedly being punished for saying there were only “two genders.” The disciplinary hearing ended up being irrelevant. Both Downie and Ingle, he said, could have handled their classroom clash better. To Mabon, such a penalty seemed excessive. Mabon noted that Ingle was scheduled to graduate in May, and being kicked out of the course would delay that. Were it not for Ingle’s alleged misconduct, the course’s modest requirements, also laid out in the syllabus, suggest he had a good chance of passing: A quarter of the grade was based on a midterm exam whose questions the students knew in advance, a quarter was based on a take-home final exam, a quarter was based on class attendance and the completion of 14 reading guides for assigned readings, and a quarter was based on a project to be presented to the class. I was talking about listening to points of view.” Disruptive, when I said that a course or research might be challenging, even disruptive in some ways, I was not talking about disrespect. At what point does a heated exchange become disrespect? And who gets to decide?Ĭourtesy of Alison Downie Alison Downie, an associate professor of religious studies, received hundreds of harassing emails, texts, and calls.ĭownie, in an interview, had this to say about the syllabus language: “Disruption is not the same as disrespect. It’s a fresh lesson in the power of the conservative media to shape the free-speech debate on campuses, and how that debate can challenge the core academic mission of colleges and universities. What happened in one classroom made a student into a right-wing hero, and turned the professor into a target. Ingle gave interviews, too, to alt-right outlets such as Red Ice TV, a YouTube channel hosted by the “pro-European” white nationalist Henrik Palmgren. “College student kicked out of class for telling professor there are only two genders,” proclaimed Fox News. His professor said it was his disruptive behavior, not any debate over the number of genders, that was the problem. A senior there, Lake Ingle, told conservative media outlets he had been kicked out of a religious-studies class because he argued that only two genders exist. The rural state university, in a former coal-mining town, had become one of the latest battlegrounds in the nation’s culture wars. Kirk - the head of Turning Point USA, a conservative political-advocacy group - took the stage this spring at Indiana University of Pennsylvania wearing a navy-blue T-shirt that read: “There are only two genders.” He said a professor’s attempt to remove a disruptive student from her class exemplified how “free speech is under attack in college campuses.”Ĭharlie Kirk showed up dressed for the occasion. Chronicle Photograph by Michael Vasquez Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative advocacy group, speaking at Indiana U.
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