Letter to the Editor

Re: "Have conservative speakers initiated a swing to the right?"

The following quote appears in an article written by Scott Milne ’14 titled “Have conservative speakers initiated a swing to the right?” published in the Spectator on Nov. 11: “Revisiting the Rosenberg and Churchill controversies, one must remember that a massive community backlash forced the College to rescind their respective invitations.”
This statement is not true.

It is well documented, beginning with a death threat recorded on voice mail at the Denver Post, that there were more than 100 threats directed toward University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, Hamilton's president and Hamilton's community prior to the cancellation of the event in 2005. Quite a few of these were death threats, and five remained under investigation by state and local police for months. One caller announced that he planned to bring a gun to campus.

When the director of campus safety as well as local police told Hamilton that they could not guarantee the safety of our students, the College canceled the event. The safety of our students superseded all else.
Susan Rosenberg withdrew as an artist-in-residence. On December 8, 2004, the Kirkland Project issued a statement sent to the campus community about Susan Rosenberg: “The Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture regretfully announces that Susan Rosenberg has withdrawn as artist-in-residence for spring 2005.”

We would request that this letter be published and that a correction of these errors be made on the Spectator website.

Sincerely,

Vige Barrie
Director of Media Relations