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Liberty Nation has documented numerous attempts by university professors and millennials to hamper free speech on campus. In the latest battle, a leftist instructor is attempting to bar a libertarian student from her class due to disagreements in beliefs on the gender wage gap, sexism, and transgenderism.
Lake Ingle is a senior Religious Studies major at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Since the dispute with Dr. Alison Downie, a professor of “Special Topics in Christianity: Self, Sin, and Salvation,” he has been disallowed from attending the class and now awaits a March 19th hearing that will determine his status in the course.
Ingle’s major requires that he completes her lecture to graduate in May. What was the source of the quarrel?
Forced Opinions
Dr. Downie recently played a video for her class from TEDx, a media organization that posts free talks on various academic topics. Ex-pastor and transgender woman Paula Stone Williams conducted the flick, during which she preached that the gender wage gap is a reality and that we live in a sexist society.
At the close of the film, Dr. Downie permitted only ladies to voice their feelings on the assignment before enabling the gentlemen to contribute, according to several sources including Campus Reform.
The room was silent. In an interview with Fox and Friends, Ingle believed colleagues were afraid to dissent, so he spoke up, challenging the points made in the video. He explained that, as reported by the Economist, the wage gap is a myth when accounting for all variables. Numerous experts also agree. He further announced that systemic sexism is bogus and that most biologists believe there are only two genders.
Regardless of the level of agreement with the views of others or their accuracy, all Americans are worthy of their First Amendment right to free speech. Dr. Downie, however, seems to disagree.
undue punishment
The instructor assigned Ingle to write an apology (as shown in the form below), and stand before his colleagues in silence while they explain any discomforts his opinions may have produced. For what was he to apologize? Dr. Downie notes that his crimes included “angry outbursts in response to being required to listen to a trans speaker discuss the reality of white male privilege and sexism.”
The professor then changed her mind and decided to take the issue to the Office of the Provost the very next day. Vice president for Academic Affairs Timothy Moerland deemed Ingle in violation of the Classroom Disruption Policy, which states that students may be removed if they are disrupting the learning process or threatening others.
A Future in the Balance
Liberty Nation is devoted to empowering the free speech rights of all Americans and there is thus far insufficient evidence available to the public to determine whether Ingle was behaving threateningly. However, during an interview with Blair County radio station, he explained that he merely spoke “passionately,” but not with hostility.
To attain further insight into the personal experiences among students and Dr. Downie, I perused her reviews dated on Rate My Professor, a site frequented by the savvy collegegoer to evaluate instructors before enrolling in their courses. Although there were only eight available ratings, the seemingly intolerant lecturer received a nearly perfect quality score, and there was not one negative comment.
Liberty Nation currently awaits the March 19 hearing during which Ingle will learn his fate. We also reached out to the young man but are yet to receive a reply.
