At Skidmore, a ‘cancel’ brouhaha
Student government body rejects effort to start libertarian group
A Skidmore College student who wanted to bring a libertarian-leaning group to campus said she was a victim of a threatening smear campaign that resulted in her Young Americans for Liberty chapter being blocked from forming.
Hannah Davis and two other students spearheaded the effort to establish a chapter affiliated with the national political group, which grew out of the 2008 presidential campaign of former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. Paul believes in
strict adherence to the Constitution and that there should be little government other than national defense and the criminal justice system.
But after more than a 100 negative comments on their Instagram account, Yalskidmore, and a Change.org petition with more than 1,700 signatures, which accused YAL of being racist and homophobic, the Student Government Association told Davis that the chapter cannot be established at the school over “concerns of hate speech and making students on campus feel unsafe.”
Davis said she was also told that YAL “would not have a healthy and sustainable future at Skidmore, and it was beyond a reasonable doubt that it would be unsuccessful.”
Davis said the determination was biased.
“A cancel culture campaign was organized against us which they coined as holding students accountable for their actions,” Davis said. “YAL at Skidmore has not participated in any of the hateful behavior that they want us to take accountability for. This idea of collectivized guilt resulted in members of our chapter being forced to leave due to harassment. I have been subjected to endless harassment, false accusations and threats of violence in which Skidmore has been slow in addressing properly.”
Davis said that every chapter has its own goals, with hers being reducing polarization, promoting free speech and dissembling “group think.”
YAL’S website says the group is “fighting back” against progressive politicians like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez, whom it says want to bring back days of despots and dictators with “a powerful central government.” YAL says it recruits students to campaign for candidates who promote capitalism, the Constitution and “individual liberties,” illustrated by an image of a man holding up a rifle.
The anti-yal petition, whose author is only identified as AC, argued that YAL is a springboard “for hate speech and bigotry disguised as political discourse.”
It went onto say that “Skidmore has become increasingly hostile to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) and marginalized students. It is no coincidence that this club is being proposed following months of bold activism by students of color.”
The Instagram posts, of which there were only three, generated comments such as “you suck,” “you all should be barred from colleges and universities,” “absolute trash” and “this organization is dangerous, this organization is threatening, and this organization has no place on our campus.”
Davis said that is not fair. She said that YAL promotes “mainstream policies” like free speech and criminal justice reform.
“The claim that YAL would be using its right to free speech in a hateful manner is nothing but an attempt to prevent students with a different point of view from speaking,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, cancel culture is alive and well on the Skidmore campus. It appears that the school is going to surrender to left leaning extremists [Davis described them as ‘selfidentified communists’], rather than stand for the freedom of speech which this country was founded upon.”
The Times Union reached out to the Student Government Association about its decision, but no one in the group has responded.
In the fall, Skidmore students demanded that art professor David Peterson be dismissed after he was seen at a Back the Blue rally in Congress Park.
Peterson said he went to watch the July rally out of curiosity and he was not a participant. Ultimately, the administration decided that Peterson should not be fired.
The YAL decision, however, rests entirely with student government, not administration, said college President Marc C. Conner.
“The student leaders whom our students have elected as their representatives have the right to vote to decide the outcome of this process,” Conner said in a statement. “This is an important part of the educative experience for our students as they freely conduct their affairs and think about public discourse, civic engagement and campus culture.”
He also said that Davis can appeal. Meanwhile, he wanted to emphasize everyone’s right to free speech, association and assembly.
“These fundamental rights apply to all, regardless of political persuasion or other differences, including views and beliefs,” Conner said.
“The rare exception would be hate speech, in which violence is clearly the goal, which would not be tolerated in our community. As always, I encourage all members of our community to exercise their freedom of speech and freedom of association and to engage with each other with patience, courtesy and respect for one another.”