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To the MSU campus community:
Looking toward …, it is unfortunate that MSU will again likely wind up in a national spotlight when a white identity group holds an event Monday afternoon at the MSU Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education. This group has earned notoriety for staging provocative, and sometimes violent, rallies in places like Charlottesville, Virginia, and at the University of Florida.
Freedom of speech protections under the U.S. Constitution prohibit public institutions like Michigan State from denying speakers access to our campus unless they pose an imminent risk. MSU attorneys used mediation to negotiate an agreement that met our requirements that the timing and location of an event that might threaten safety be held so as to minimize the risk of violence or disruption. Our staff found a way to keep safety as a top priority without abrogating First Amendment-protected speech, which in this case is plainly loathsome and in opposition to our values. I want to assure everyone that MSU Police are taking all appropriate security measures.
Michigan State always has recognized the right to free speech, even speech we find repugnant. Diversity of thought and the freedom to represent it and to speak it are essential to fostering scholarly excellence and to maintaining a democratic society. We do not silence people based on who they are or what they think. Yet people are still responsible for what they say and do.
Nobody affiliated with Michigan State invited this small, hateful group, and I doubt they’ll find support. The remarkable accomplishments of our diverse community of scholars expose the fraudulence of their racist rhetoric every day. But they come here hoping to gain energy by provoking reaction to their taunts. If we take the bait—if we return their hate—it only supports the preposterous claims to victimhood that sustain their ideology. They court headlines. They crave confrontation, because without it, their message of hate falls on deaf ears.
Let’s instead register our opposition by depriving them of the attention they desperately seek. For that, and for public safety, I’m urging people to steer clear of the area near the Pavilion. There are other community events that provide much better opportunities to demonstrate who Spartans really are: people motivated by love and inclusion, not hate and exclusion, and dedicated to making a positive difference in the world. For information, go to the MSU Council of Graduate Students event website.
I hope our students enjoy a much-needed spring break next week and that they return ready to enjoy a beautiful Michigan spring and prepared to charge into the final weeks of the semester.
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