The free speech summit that wasn't

The Youngkin administration dodged questions about First Amendment Rights and attendees felt barred from speaking to the press at a summit billed in support of free speech that was not publicized.

The invite-only event, hosted by the Youngkin administration on Nov. 29, drew a crowd of more than 100 university and college leaders from public and private institutions across the Commonwealth to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Their charge was to discuss a perceived affront to “diversity of thought” – a term that has quickly become a buzzword among Conservatives – on college campuses.

Several college and university leaders who attended the event, titled The Higher Education Summit on Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity, declined to talk with the press, noting that they were prohibited from doing so.

A spokesperson for the Youngkin administration said it was not their policy that barred university and college leaders from talking on the record with reporters. A University of Virginia spokesperson also said they were unaware of any policy or prohibition on speaking to the media.

“I myself am rather rattled by this,” Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and a speaker at the event, said about the leaders’ unwillingness to talk to the press.

“Unfortunately, we are seeing a high level of disregard for these core freedoms. Freedom of the press is in our DNA,” he said. “I’m genuinely perplexed that a school would tell faculty and administrators ‘Don’t talk to the press.’”

Mum on 'Unite the Right'

Wednesday's summit was the first of its kind that focused on freedom of speech and freedom of expression in Virginia, Youngkin said in his address.

University leaders weren’t the only people unwilling to answer questions from the press. Youngkin's Secretary of Education, Aimee Rogstad Guidera, repeatedly dodged questions from USA Today about whether speech by white nationalists who attended the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017 should be considered free and protected under the First Amendment.

Charlottesville garnered national attention in August 2017 when white nationalists gathered at Emancipation Park to protest the planned removal of the city's Robert E. Lee statue. Counter protesters clashed with the white nationalists and the melee culminated in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was struck and killed when a rally participant rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protestors.

The driver, James Alex Fields Jr., was found guilty in December 2018 of five counts of aggravated malicious wounding, three counts of malicious wounding, one hit and run count for injuring many others, and first-degree murder in connection to Heyer's death.

Youngkin briefly touched on the tragedy in his keynote address but didn’t elaborate on whether the speech of white nationalists or counter-protestors should be considered free and protected.

“It was nearby that a series of tragic events, terribly violent events, unfolded in 2017, and so we cannot look the other way or mask ourselves in protecting unbridled expression of anything while violent rhetoric escalates to physical violence,” he said during his address, but demurred from directly condemning the white nationalists who took part in the 2017 rally.

Youngkin was not available to press before or after his speech and his office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

No promotion, little protest

There was little demonstration from students or faculty during Wednesday’s summit, despite the looming shadow of the "Unite the Right" rally. A group of roughly two dozen students did arrive, after the governor had left the event, to protest quietly outside of the Newcomb Hall ballroom with signs in support of gun control measures but they did not appear to know what the summit was about. They left after about 30 minutes.

Planning for Wednesday’s summit began roughly a year and a half ago, Rogstad Guidera said. No information could be found online about the event prior to Wednesday, and the press was notified via advisory one day in advance.

The University of Virginia offers a calendar of campus-offered or sponsored events. While Wednesday’s event was held on campus, it was conceived of and organized by the governor’s office. They were responsible for its structure and publicity, a spokesperson for the University of Virginia said.

“It’s our typical procedure, the week of the event we’ll send out an advisory to notify the press, I can’t speak to how invites went out for the actual event,” Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said. “I can’t speak to when public notice went out.”

Laura Ornée, University of Virginia chapter chair for the United Campus Workers of Virginia - a union that represents both students and faculty - and a Ph.D. candidate who teaches undergraduate students, said she neither heard about the event from her students, or from the university as a student or as a faculty member.

“I am sure that if it was properly announced, there would have been many more students protesting,” Ornée said.

“We get daily updates from UVa about stuff going on, on campus and this would normally, definitely be in an email,” she said. “It’s a little ironic, right? Having an event on free speech but then making it sort of secret and not giving people the opportunity to practice their free speech in case they’re in opposition.”

Not yet a mandate, but a due date

With his back to the sunlight shining through the Newcomb Hall ballroom windows, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin ended his keynote address with a call to action: For each college and university across the Commonwealth to form a task force and create an action plan to promote “diversity of thought” on their campus.

Those action plans, while not mandated, did come with a due date of March 1, 2024, Poliakoff said. It was unclear if those plans are to be submitted to Youngkin's office but literature passed out to attendees outlined the following criteria:

• A summary of what the university or college representative or leader learned at the summit,

• What actions they plan to take on their own campuses to support freedom of speech and intellectual diversity,

• What resources they need to take those actions,

• And to identify the person at the university or college who will lead the task force.

Poliakoff reiterated his support for the governor’s charge in an interview after the summit.

"Schools need to do this because otherwise it’s likely to be mandated,” he said. “I don’t want anybody to take this as a threat but, as one looks around the country, as one looks at survey data, public support for higher education is plummeting."

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Free speech and diversity of thought task force on campuses requested