News and Views on Lennox Vs. CMU From Other Sources

Several different media sources have begun to pick up the story of CMU's disciplinary hearing against Dennis Lennox. Just to bring everyone up to speed. Lennox is being threatened with punishment up to expulsion at a disciplinary hearing next Wednesday January 30th. The subject of the disciplinary hearing is from an incident with a Professor Koper in which Lennox was passing out literature inside a university building at about nine in the evening. The larger context is the painstaking manner in which Lennox has been tracking the hiring of Gary Peters to the lucrative position of Griffin Chair in the poli sci department. Peters is simultaneously running for U.S. Congress in a district hundreds of miles away. Lennox, and his organization, believe that Peters should choose between CMU and his run for Congress.

First, here is the student newspaper at CMU

Before rallying behind Lennox, his supporters must first take the disciplinary code for what it is: a spectrum, the extremities of which rarely are exercised. Do not presume malice against an entire ideology simply on basis of a possible, yet unlikely, punishment.

The charges against Lennox do not specifically address his message, but rather the manner through which he spread it. University officials have reiterated the necessary consequence of free speech: that it is impossible, if not even undesirable, to distinguish hate speech from free speech and to limit only the former.

I found this editorial to be so amateurish that it bordered on corrupt. They framed the issue as some sort of debate of free speech running up against disruptive behavior. That frankly ignores the mountain of evidence that the administration has singled out and targeted Lennox in a manner that they never would for the general student population. Furthermore, in theory it may very well be disruptive to pass out literature indoors, however in this incident Lennox was doing it at nine in the evening. There weren't any classes and thus he was disrupting no one. We don't cite people for j walking even though that is also a technical violation of the law.

To frame this issue as a matter of free speech rubbing up against disruptive behavior is frankly bad journalism. This campaign against Lennox by the administration is nothing less than a campaign to initimidate Lennox so that he drops his campaign against Peters, and my prior work has documented that.

The Saginaw news has also picked up the story.

The 23-year-old became a lightning rod after he launched a campaign against CMU educator and political candidate Gary C. Peters, who Lennox said should "pick either Congress or campus."

The university hired Peters, a former Michigan lawmaker and state lottery commissioner, last year as its Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government. Peters is seeking the Democratic nod to face Republican Congressman Joe Knollenberg in Oakland County this fall.

Lennox said the hearing stems from allegations he provided false information to a university official, did not comply with an official and violated policy regulating the distribution of printed materials. He said the incidents happened Oct. 23 as he distributed anti-Peters fliers on campus and refused to give his name to an unidentified man who was collecting copies of the newsletter.

This particular piece would be characterized as hard news. The story is reported straight. Lennox is quoted and both side's positions are presented. That is the way hard news is supposed to be written, and thus there are no problems here. I frankly believe that Res Ipsa Loquitor (the facts speak for themselves), and thus if anyone presents the facts there is only one conclusion to draw.

Blog of Bodner gives a synopsis of the situation and quotes me as well.

Central Michigan University administrators are going forward with an expulsion hearing for a student who opposes Democratic congressional candidate and political science professor Gary Peters, The Saginaw News reports today.

A hearing on Wednesday at 8 a.m. will decide the future of Students Against Gary Peters spokesman Dennis Lennox, a third year student, who has coordinated a coalition of 150 students who want Peters to pick between Congress and campus. It is unknown if the hearing will continue, as school administrators and trustees have been besieged by hundreds of complaints in recent days.

Lennox is charged with three alleged violations of student regulations for an October 23 incident when a then-unknown man confiscated copies of The Peters Report newsletter.

I have been told by sources that Lennox' greatest ally is media pressure and thus it looks as though his allies are ratcheting up their own attacks...