If only more university donors would do this.
Real estate magnate Tom Lewis withdrew his annual $400,000 pledge to Arizona State University’s honors college, citing “left-wing hostility and activism” after faculty condemned a staff member for organizing events with conservative speakers, including Dennis Prager, Charlie Kirk, and Robert Kiyosaki.
As my colleague Bob Hoge covered, Lewis had donated millions to ASU over 20 years and developed the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development, but his decision was prompted by the university’s response to the event organized by the center’s executive director, leading to her termination:
Arizona State University is the latest institution to learn the meaning of “go woke, go broke” when a top donor announced he would stop his $400K a year donation after the school fired a conservative professor. The professor’s crime? Holding an event that featured conservative speakers such as Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager,
The controversy began with the university’s firing of Ann Atkinson, executive director of the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development at ASU’s Barrett Honors College. Atkinson says she was laid off last month after she organized an event titled “Health, Wealth and Happiness,” featuring the conservative commentators Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk. ASU, by contrast, says that she was fired because the center lost funding, while claiming that the event nevertheless “was well attended and was successful.”
Atkinson wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal describing what happened. She blasted ASU for their attacks on free speech: “…beneath ASU’s written commitment to intellectual diversity lies a deep hostility toward divergent views.” Her article goes in depth describing the absolutely chilling lengths to which professors, students, and the administration went to try to get the event shut down and her terminated.
In a statement, Atkinson criticized ASU’s apparent hypocrisy, noting that it “claims to value freedom of expression” but that “the faculty mob always wins against institutional protections for free speech.”
Of course, the university denies that the educator’s firing was motivated by politics. In a statement, it claimed “Ms. Atkinson’s current job at the university will no longer exist after June 30 because the donor who created and funded the center decided to terminate his donation. Unfortunate, but hardly unprecedented.”
Lewis then issued a statement in response to Atkinson’s firing declaring that he would halt donations to the institution:
After seeing this level of left-wing hostility and activism, I no longer had any confidence in Barrett to adhere to the terms of our gift, and made the decision to terminate our agreement, effective June 30, 2023.
I regret that this decision was necessary, and hope that Barrett and ASU will take strong action to ensure that free speech will always be protected and that all voices can be heard.
Lewis’s decision to withhold his significant donation serves as a clear message to ASU and other higher learning institutions: donors expect universities to embrace and protect free speech rather than bowing to ideological pressure. The impact on the university’s finances could prompt them to reevaluate their approach to handling controversial events and speakers, ensuring that all voices, regardless of political affiliation, are welcome.
Unfortunately, the threat of punishment for expressing dissenting viewpoints is not limited to ASU. Many universities still actively punish students and faculty for not espousing progressive ideas. This limits academic freedom and hampers the exchange of ideas necessary for intellectual growth and understanding.
The incident at ASU raises broader concerns about the state of free speech and ideological diversity on college campuses across the nation. Universities should be bastions of intellectual exploration, encouraging students and faculty to engage in respectful, open dialogue about a wide range of ideas. Censorship, whether explicit or implicit, undermines the very essence of higher education.
Arizona State University’s recent handling of conservative speakers and the subsequent firing of Ann Atkinson have brought the issue of political bias and censorship to the forefront. Donor Tom Lewis’s decision to withhold funding highlights the importance of preserving academic freedom and protecting free speech on college campuses.
Unfortunately, there are not enough Tom Lewises in the world. Because of this, higher learning institutions can continue engaging in their own forms of authoritarianism by suppressing viewpoints they don’t like.
