UNT free speech panelist out

General counsel shocks audience with racial slur

When Daniel Ojo, a junior at the University of North Texas, went to a campus panel called “When Hate Comes to Campus” on Thursday night, he said he did not realize the name was a premonition.

Caitlin Sewell, assistant general counsel for the UNT system — which represents almost 44,000 students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area — gave a presentation on types of protected speech and First Amendment rights. For about 250 audience members, many students, it started off relatively sleepily as Sewell plowed through her introduction.

But less than five minutes in, Sewell warned her audience that to talk about offensive speech, she would have to say something offensive. Ojo snapped to attention. “Oh, God, please don’t let her say the N-word,” Ojo remembers thinking. “I just had a feeling.”

He was right.

“It’s impossible to talk about the First Amendment without saying horrible things, like, you know, ‘You’re just a dumb (Nword), and I hate you,’ ” Sewell said, according to audio recordings circulating Friday on Twitter. “That’s protected speech. If you walk into the dean of students’ office and start screaming obscenities about, ‘F this place, F all of you, y’all are all f-ing stupid,’ they can escort you out and do that immediately.”

Neal Smatresk, UNT’s president, released a statement shortly after the event apologizing for Sewell’s words.

“A member of the UNT staff used a racial epithet that was not reflective of the values of our university community,” the Twitter statement reads. “While the individual was trying to make a point about First Amendment speech, this language is never condoned in our community which prides itself on our diversity and caring nature.”

Sewell resigned Friday, according to a university email sent to students.

About 35 percent of the students at UNT are African-American. The university is a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution.

Sewell’s remarks are symptomatic of the broader culture in the administration at UNT, said Ojo. Last year, a university spokeswoman resigned after calling a student’s petition to name a dorm after a woman of color “reverse racism.”

UNT later stated that spokeswoman’s views were those of a private citizen’s, not the school.

“We know overt racism is bad, but when it gets down to the nitty-gritty, we don’t know how to deal with institutional racism, with instances like these,” Ojo said.

Ojo said that at the event Thursday night, the audience sat in stunned silence after the racial epithet until Sewell wrapped up her presentation. Then students began to speak up.

“Excuse me, why did you censor the F-word but not the N-word?” one asked.

“It was unnecessary and it was cruel, and you know that,” another said.

Sewell, visibly upset, tried to defend herself.

“I did not mean to, by any means, offend anyone. I wish I’d censored that word ... it came out without thought,” she said, drawing groans from the audience. “I have literally never said that word in a public setting before.”

According to her biography on the UNT system website, Sewell joined the Office of General Counsel in May 2017. Prior to that, she worked in private practice with a Houston law firm. Sewell graduated from Texas Tech University and Baylor Law School.

According to the email announcing Sewell’s resignation, UNT will meet with student leaders in the coming weeks to “continue to foster a culture of diversity.”

Sewell could not be reached for comment.