Free Speech Group Criticizes UNC for Refusing to Discipline Disruptors of Bari Weiss Talk

The campus of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, N.C., on June 29, 2023. Eros Hoagland/Getty Images

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has failed to meet its legal obligations to protect the right of the visiting speaker, journalist Bari Weiss, to express her views freely and to discipline members and supporters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) who blatantly disregarded both university policy and state law by disrupting her talk and attempting to shout her down.

That’s the view of Speech First, a Washington-based advocacy group, which today sent the UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees a letter, a copy of which The Epoch Times has obtained, outlining its concerns over events during at a Jan. 22 talk by Ms. Weiss and their aftermath.

The incident, and Speech First’s response to it, are the latest in a series of events that have drawn national attention in the months since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel and massacre of men, women, and children. The Florida chapter of SJP has sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in federal court over a “deactivation order“ seeking to deny SJP official recognition on the grounds that it supports terrorism.

Even in an academic environment where politically motivated vandalism and calls for the cancellation and “de-platforming” of speakers who contravene left-wing dogma are common, what took place on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus on Jan. 22 is disturbing, Speech First asserts in its letter.

Ms. Weiss came to the campus to take part in an onstage talk with Frank Bruni, a columnist and professor, about the Middle East conflict. In the days leading up to the event, members of the local branch of SJP engaged in a familiar tactic, releasing fliers urging all who planned to attend the talk to participate in a walkout.

In a Jan. 17 post, SJP wrote, “Bari Weiss and her lies are NOT welcomed on campus!” and encouraged people to sign a Google participation form acknowledging that they would join the walkout.

Even though SJP made no secret of its plans to disrupt the talk, or of its hostility to hosting Ms. Weiss as a speaker, the administration made few preparations to ensure that the talk could proceed without disruption.

According to a local news report, the event was only 25 minutes underway when protesters struck, rising from their seats, waving Palestinian flags, and shouting toward the stage.

This disruptive activity reportedly went on for several minutes before an administrator came to the podium and, citing the Campus Free Speech Act that North Carolina’s state legislature passed in 2017, told the protesters they had to leave. But the damage was done, and the university’s failure to adhere to its own internal policies under UNC Policy 1300.8, and to enforce state law, represents a serious lapse of moral courage, according to Speech First.

People walk on the campus of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill on June 29, 2023. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-based admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution. Eros Hoagland/Getty Images

Legal Duties

Under the Campus Free Speech Act, a university may not turn a blind eye to this type of hooliganism and repression of speech.

The act amends Chapter 116 of the state’s general statutes to include the following rule: “The constituent institution shall implement a range of disciplinary sanctions for anyone under the jurisdiction of a constituent institution who substantially disrupts the functioning of the constituent institution or who substantially interferes with the protected free expression rights of others, including protests and demonstrations that infringe upon the rights of others to engage in and listen to expressive activity” (emphasis added).

Even without this state law in place, Speech First argues, the university would be bound under its own policies to pursue aggressive disciplinary action against the disruptors. Speech First’s letter cites Policy 1300.8, which states that any student found to have interfered with freedom of expression must face penalties, as well as a clause in the university’s student handbook stating that a student organization’s “registration may be withdrawn or denied should it be determined that ... the organization fails to comply with University policies” or with state and/or federal laws.

The UNC-Chapel Hill branch of SJP has egregiously violated both, Speech First asserts, yet the administration has failed to act.

Speech First’s letter makes the point that the protesters were planning to leave the venue anyway. Merely ordering them to do so, after they had occupied seats that students who might have wished to listen to and engage with the speakers in good faith could have used, and after they had disrupted the event, hardly amounts to a robust defense of free expression as mandated under state law and school policy.

“Merely stating that the policy exists and then escorting the students out of the event, and ultimately assisting the disruptors in the portion of their demonstration that involved a walkout, falls short of the stated enforcement measures,” the letter continues.

A speaker addresses a rally in support of Palestine and free speech at Columbia University on Nov. 14, 2023, in New York City. The university suspended two student organizations, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voices for Peace, for violating university policies. There have been protests in support of both Israel and Palestine. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A Double Standard?

The letter further raises the question of a double standard. It expresses doubts that the administration would be so lenient if “50 hooded (or masked) white nationalist students” had disrupted a scheduled event.

“It beggars belief to think that UNC’s leadership would shrug their shoulders and say, ‘Well, at least they only disrupted the event for a little while.’ There would be consequences for the individuals and the organizations involved. The double standard in this instance is palpable,” the letter states.

Speech First heavily criticizes the administration’s lack of resolve in this specific occasion and its failure to uphold a general culture of freedom of expression on campus, and calls for a formal investigation into the incident and UNC-Chapel Hill’s inability or unwillingness to meet its legal obligations.

The UNC-Chapel Hill administration did not respond by press time to a request for comment.