Daniel J. Flynn

    The situation is a familiar one on campus. A small but vocal group of activists threaten to disrupt a speaking event. Rather than punish the unruly troublemakers, administrators reward them by canceling the event.
    This very scenario played itself out at the University of Texas just a few short weeks into the spring semester. 
    Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations, was scheduled to speak at the Austin campus on February 1. About 48 hours before Kissinger was to lecture, the University of Texas pulled the plug on the event. The move came in reaction to a planned disruption of the event by a group of students and professors who call themselves the Radical Action Network. The group affirms that it planned to shout down Kissinger. The school says it feared violence, a position that the Radical Action Network states is unwarranted. 
    Those hoping to muzzle Kissinger cite his role in the Vietnam War to justify their actions, despite the fact that Kissinger presided over the end, rather than the escalation, of the war. While a campus visit by Kissinger might have sparked controversy 30 years ago, many wonder why there is an uproar now. 
    “As I understood it, [the demonstration] clearly posed a threat to public safety, and I just could not, in conscience, allow people to walk into that,” Harry Middleton, the director of the LBJ Library and Museum said. “There was no doubt that they planned a massive demonstration inside the auditorium, and that’s the bottom line.” The LBJ Library and Museum served as the site of the halted event. 
    Students angry with the decision to cancel the event blame UT Journalism Professor Bob Jensen, who they label as the “ringleader” of the activists. Jensen held a “teach-in” about  Kissinger to 200 students prior to the planned lecture and branded the longtime diplomat and scholar a “war criminal.” Jensen and a number of university groups had formed a “not welcome” committee for Kissinger. 
    “Jensen should spend more time teaching and less time helping to sabotage distinguished lecturers,” asserts Marc Levin, a former student of Jensen’s and current leader of the Texas-based American Freedom Center. “Having taken a class on Media Law and Ethics with Jensen, I observed firsthand his liberal brainwashing of students, which included long rants on ‘white privilege’ and gay liberation. It is time for Jensen and other professors to stop misusing their positions to brainwash students and sabotage distinguished speakers.”
    Although UT’s president canceled the event, he claims to be disgusted with the Radical Action Network. “I think this is an absolutely shameful thing that this should happen on a university campus,” Larry Faulkner commented. 
    “I  think Faulkner not only misrepresented the situation,” Jensen explained,  “but he is implicitly ignoring one of the central functions of the university, which is to facilitate political dialogue.” Others counter that Jensen and his followers are not interested in political dialogue, but in silencing others. 
     “It is intolerable that a group of radical students,” Levin contended, “has been allowed to bring a halt to the intellectual discourse that enriches a college campus.”
     Last semester, students at UT-Austin shouted down Ward Connerly, leader of a nationwide campaign to replace racial preferences with a merit-based system. Carrying such signs as, “Protect Free Speech — Shut Connerly Up!” the activists argued that by silencing Connerly they were actually enhancing the debate. The school’s refusal to discipline those that attempted to censor Connerly gave activists the green light to stop the Kissinger event, critics of UT maintain.
     In 1984, 53 people were arrested at the University of Texas after they tried to break-up a speech by Kissinger.