How Gabriella and Megan Schooled their University on Free Speech — Transcript

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1. 0:03- "We silence voices all the time in this country.
2. 0:06That's a tragedy. And also the greatness of democracy."
3. 0:09That's not a witty line from a political sitcom,
4. 0:12and it isn't an incisive excerpt from a dystopia novel.
5. 0:15It's what our university president told us after.
6. 0:18We are publicly maligned by a faculty member
7. 0:20and other students
8. 0:22and prevented from forming a recognized campus group solely
9. 0:25because of our political views.
10. 0:26My name is Megan Rothmund
11. 0:28- And I'm Gabriella Delorenzo.
12. 0:30When I was about 15,
13. 0:32I started following Turning Point USA's work.
14. 0:34Its overall emphasis on free speech, free markets,
15. 0:37and limited government has played a big role in shaping
16. 0:40how I think through these important issues.
17. 0:42In my sophomore year at the State University
18. 0:44of New York at Cortland
19. 0:46or SUNY Cortland for short, a group of students try
20. 0:49to have a TPUSA chapter recognized on campus.
21. 0:52Even though it would've met all the requirements,
22. 0:54the group was loudly opposed at a student senate meeting
23. 0:57and ultimately denied official status.
24. 0:59- Official club recognition is important on college
25. 1:02campuses like ours.
26. 1:03It's more than just a statement that we're welcome.
27. 1:06It allows us to use campus meeting spaces
28. 1:08and access the pool of money we all pay into
29. 1:11through our mandatory student activity fees.
30. 1:13Those funds are available
31. 1:14to every official student group on campus,
32. 1:17so it really matters that groups are approved on
33. 1:19an equal basis.
34. 1:21- In my senior year, I was determined that no one was going
35. 1:24to stop us from getting a TPUSA chapter firmly established
36. 1:27before I graduated.
37. 1:28I don't expect everyone to agree with my views
38. 1:31or everyone else's at TPUSA's,
39. 1:33but that's why groups like this are so valuable.
40. 1:35Let's debate ideas. Let's hear each other out.
41. 1:38Let's try our best to persuade each other.
42. 1:40Even if we can't agree.
43. 1:41Who knows, we may even find a way
44. 1:43to get along despite our differences.
45. 1:45So over the course of two months, Megan
46. 1:48and I spent at least 45 hours jumping
47. 1:50through all the hoops for approval.
48. 1:52The last step was to present approved plans
49. 1:54before the student senate.
50. 1:56- That's where things got interesting.
51. 1:58For the second time, the student senate bristled
52. 2:00with animated opposition to the idea
53. 2:02of recognizing our group.
54. 2:04After Gabriella presented her plan for our group,
55. 2:07student senators began asking a string of loaded questions
56. 2:10that were clearly aimed at discrediting TPUSA
57. 2:13and assailing us for wanting to associate ourselves
58. 2:16with the national group in a clearly pre-planned sequence.
59. 2:20Seven student senators, all of whom belonged
60. 2:22to recognized campus groups grilled us about our
61. 2:25association with TPUSA.
62. 2:27It was clear from the outset
63. 2:28that these student senators were far more interested in
64. 2:31attacking a political target than in
65. 2:33working with us to officially
66. 2:34recognize our group.
67. 2:36The ambush became official when a student senator yielded
68. 2:39his time to Nikolai Karkov,
69. 2:41A philosophy professor researching Marxism.
70. 2:43Professor Karkov immediately unleashed a series
71. 2:46of false allegations.
72. 2:47Mischaracterizations and out and out lies about TPUSA.
73. 2:51"We're not here to support you,"
74. 2:52Professor Karkov said to begin his prepared remarks.
75. 2:55At least he gave us a fair warning.
76. 2:58A minute into his angry diatribe, I respectfully asked him if he had
77. 3:01a question that I could answer.
78. 3:03This was still a question and answer time, at least
79. 3:05as far as I was aware.
80. 3:06- Of course, he ignored Gabriella.
81. 3:09A minute later when Gabriella again asked him if he had a
82. 3:12question she could answer.
83. 3:13The crowd shouted her down.
84. 3:15It was only after Professor Karkov finished berating us
85. 3:18and TPUSA, that he finally stepped down to a loud applause
86. 3:22and even a standing ovation from one student.
87. 3:24But even then, the questioning from student senators
88. 3:27continued and lasted for well over an hour.
89. 3:30The whole scene was surreal.
90. 3:32We were there to get final approval from classmates
91. 3:35to start a campus group devoted to free speech.
92. 3:37Yet here we were effectively silenced by a professor
93. 3:40of Marxism who was using our classmates to shut us down.
94. 3:44- The student senate voted against recognizing our group,
95. 3:47but we weren't gonna stand by and let that be the end of it.
96. 3:50We set a meeting with administrators,
97. 3:52including our college president, Dr.
98. 3:53Erik Bitterbaum. The meeting left us speechless.
99. 3:57We had been discriminated against
100. 3:58because of our political views, a clear violation
101. 4:01of the First Amendment's, protections for free speech
102. 4:03and freedom of assembly.
103. 4:05Yet, instead of backing us up, Dr.
104. 4:06Bitterbaum actively discouraged us from trying
105. 4:09to start the club in the future.
106. 4:10- After all, Dr.
107. 4:12Bitterbaum told us he had looked into his "crystal ball"
108. 4:15and could foresee that future efforts would be stymied
109. 4:17by the same people, including Professor Karkov.
110. 4:21"We silence voices all the time in this country," Dr.
111. 4:23Bitterbaum said, "that's the tragedy
112. 4:25and also the greatness of democracy."
113. 4:28- None of this was right and it was also illegal.
114. 4:31Well, the help of Alliance Defending Freedom,
115. 4:32we sued SUNY officials and the student government.
116. 4:35Less than two weeks later,
117. 4:37the student government reversed course
118. 4:38and granted us official club recognition.
119. 4:41It shouldn't have taken a lawsuit to convince our university
120. 4:44to follow the law and honor our First Amendment rights.
121. 4:47Colleges are meant to be the marketplace of ideas,
122. 4:50but too often they're transformed into ideological echo
123. 4:52chambers where free speech is stamped out entirely.
124. 4:56The greatness of our country isn't
125. 4:58that we silence voices all the time.
126. 5:00It's that everyone has their say.
127. 5:01I wish I could say I learned that in the classroom,
128. 5:03but instead to lessen our college had to learn in court.
129. 5:07- Find more cases like ours at freedommatters.org.
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