by Dan Flynn

Villanova campus security attempted to restore order at a public lecture on October 2 after a professor launched into an angry tirade against a conservative lecturer and wouldn't allow the question-and-answer period to continue.

Dr. Cynthia Glover, a Villanova sociology professor, allegedly erupted for an estimated ten minutes during the speech's question-and-answer period and refused to cede the floor to Reginald Jones, a speaker invited by the College Republicans student group. Jones, a musician and entrepreneur, delivered a speech that skewered a number of liberal positions. It was Jones's stance against racial preferences, however, that provoked Professor Glover's angry response.

"She basically went off on me," Jones told Campus Report. "She essentially gave a speech. She went into meltdown mode. It got very personal."

"I definitely felt as though Dr. Glover acted inappropriately for a professor," explained Chris Graver, the president of the campus College Republicans group that organized the event. In addition to her outburst, Graver objected to Dr. Glover's attempt to usurp the question-and-answer period of the student-sponsored lecture. Graver maintains that protocol normally reserves the first questions for students at a student event, and not faculty and administrators.

The sociology professor "just had a hard time understanding that another African-American could have a different viewpoint of affirmative action," according to Graves. "Some professors are in their own little world," Graves opined, and "can't comprehend there is another side" to important political questions.

Glover objects to the portrayal of events by Jones and Graver. Cutting her off, Glover told Campus Report, was an "attempt by this ultra-conservative backlash group...to stifle any alternative opinions or diversity of thought." Glover also alleges that Jones made what she calls an "ageist" comment by observing that she "was probably older than him." "Why was this even relevant?" she rhetorically asked in an email to Campus Report. Glover asserts that she had three questions to ask, and "After I stated the first question, Jones rudely cut me off and began a lengthy commentary which in no way answered my initial question regarding the sources for his seemingly skewed data references in his speech."

Glover cites Jones's assertion that "90% of black Americans vote one way" as an example of "outlandish data citation" that she sought to combat. Roughly ninety percent of blacks, however, did vote for Al Gore in the 2000 election.

"As an academician, I welcome alternative and oppositional perspectives," the Villanova sociology professor maintained. "However, Jones's speech was full of false, misleading and incorrect historical and contemporary references." Glover also maintained that the speech contained a lot of flash and style, but little of the substance she would expect from a lecture at an academic institution.

Glover teaches several highly politicized courses at Villanova, including "Race and Ethnic Relations" and "Gendered Selves: The Socio-Politics of Sexuality, Identity, and Consciousness." "Moving from the realm of dominant/societal identification, to the level of conscious sexual empowerment, involves challenging essentialist ideologies concerning the 'proper' (i.e., 'natural') roles of males and females," the course description of "Gendered Selves" reads. "Our framework for these analyses is both multi-cultural and feminist. Our goal is to develop strategies for the development of new, subjectively-defined gendered selves-free from the restrictive forces of sexism, objectification, homophobia and heterosexism."

Graver pointed out that Glover immediately seized on the question and answer period as a platform to air her own views on affirmative action and a number of other topics. "After a while, she kept on talking and wouldn't give anyone a chance to ask another question, or give Reginald a chance to reply." As her harangue progressed, Glover "walked into the aisle and was screaming and carrying on," which alarmed some attendees so much that they called campus security. Security arrived only after Glover departed.

Following her outburst, Glover led a small group of students in a walk-out and refused to listen to Jones's answer. Undeterred, Jones continued to answer questions from interested students for almost two hours.

"I know I am in the arena of ideas so I expect vigorous disagreement," Jones conceded, but Professor Glover's verbal assault went too far in his opinion. What particularly rankled Jones were suggestions by some opponents in the audience that he was not a legitimate black person because of his conservative views on the Confederate flag, affirmative action, hate crimes, and other hot-button issues.

"Being black is not some club that I signed up for, and my membership cannot be revoked based on my political affiliation," professed Jones, who grew up in the Bronx and has deep roots in the world of rap music.

The controversy at Villanova was one in a string of incidents Jones has faced while trying to get his pro-liberty message out to students.

At an Accuracy in Academia conference at Columbia University in 1998, Jones was among a number of speakers banned from campus and forced to lecture in a public off-campus park after protestors convinced administrators to ban the event. In 2000, Penn State protestors staged a walk-out during his campus speech. At Ithaca College last year, opponents of his February speech argued that his right-leaning political views made him a bad choice for a Black History Month speaker, with one student calling him "a son of a motherless goat" in the school newspaper.

Despite the enmity shown him, Jones contends that he usually is successful in winning over some students to his way of thinking.

Just as Jones has faced censorship and uncivil audiences in many of his lectures throughout the country, Villanova is no stranger to controversies regarding free speech issues. "Conservative or unorthodox speakers at Villanova have always been treated in a hostile manner," Graves contends. Among other attempts to deny free speech rights to conservatives, the College Republicans chairman points to Charlton Heston's visit to the campus two years ago, which sparked failed attempts by students and faculty to deny the Academy Award-winning actor his right to speak, as proof of the campus Left's opposition to free speech. By way of comparison, speakers to the Left of center, such as recent Villanova speaker Noam Chomsky, speak regularly on the campus without incident.

Two years ago, a Villanova administrator stole an entire press run of a conservative newspaper because it revealed a financial arrangement between the Catholic institution and a corporation that funds pro-abortion causes. "We obviously have some serious concerns with the content of The Conservative Column," Tom Mogan, director of student development, declared on the editor's voicemail. "Therefore, I will be removing all the issues of The Conservative Column that I see." Days later and after national attention, the administrator returned the thousands of stolen papers he had stored in his office.

"The main problem I have with the whole thing is the double standard," Graves held, "which is completely obvious."

As for Dr. Glover, she told Campus Report, "The campus response to my presence at the Jones talk has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive. I've received e-mails, voicemails, handshakes and warm comments from a diverse range of folks-both students and faculty."