Middlebury Administrators Apologize for Canceling Lecture by Polish Conservative

Administrators at Middlebury College apologized this week for their decision to cancel a lecture by Polish conservative Ryszard Legutko.

According to a report by The College Fix, administrators at Middlebury College are rethinking their decision to cancel a recent lecture by Ryszard Legutko, a Polish politician. An event featuring Legutko was canceled after student protesters urged the administration to reconsider their support for the event. Legutko ultimately gave a “secret” speech in a small classroom on campus.

“As someone who cares about making this campus a better, more thoughtful place, I think it would be irresponsible not to protest against such a person’s presence,” one student told the Middlebury student newspaper in the weeks leading up to the scheduled event. “I intend on exercising my own right to free speech and protest by refusing to allow Legutko to speak here without informing the community of his harmful ideas.”

In a meeting this week, students confronted administrators about their decision to cancel the event. Administrators were quick to apologize. They noted that students were justified in their frustration. They pledged to ensure that future events will not be deterred by student protesters.

“I hear you, and you should be outraged, and we should acknowledge that and apologize because that’s the least we can do right now because we can’t make it right in the moment,” one administrator said during the meeting. “But in the future, we will do everything we can to make it right,” an administrator told the students.

“You are absolutely right, me apologizing is not going to cut it,” the administrator continued. “We have to change, and it’s not up to you to engage, it’s up to us … you should be frustrated. I’m just really frustrated too, and again that doesn’t make this right, doesn’t absolve me of my responsibilities in any shape or form, but we’re going to keep at it because this is not the institution we want.”

Middlebury College was in the spotlight in 2017 after student protesters physically attacked Middlebury Professor Allison Stanger during an event featuring American Enterprise Institute Scholar Charles Murray.

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