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Ayers visit sparks debate on radio
by Harry Shipps
Staff writer
News | 4/28/09
Posted online at 6:50 AM EST on 4/28/09
The visit of Bill Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground and professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to campus this Thursday has raised the ire of members of the surrounding community such as prominent Boston conservative radio host Michael Graham, who has led a campaign to get Brandeis to bar Ayers from speaking.
On his blog, Graham further criticized the upcoming visit, writing, "The Unibomber, Timothy McVeigh, Osama bin Laden-hey, they've all got something to say and we should give them a forum at Brandeis to say it."
Ayers was a radical anti-war activist in the 1960s and a co-founder of the Weather Underground, a radical protest group blamed for several bombings at the Capitol and Pentagon. The Weather Underground was suspected to have been involved in the shooting of Walter A. Schroeder, a Boston police officer, during a bank robbery in Brighton.
Dennis Nealon, the executive director of media and public affairs for Brandeis, said, "We told the [Boston] Globe and the [Boston] Herald that allowing the talk to proceed does not mean that Brandeis condones the views of the speaker."
"The University does not unilaterally bar someone because some will oppose their views. … This is about freedom of [educational opportunity]," he said.
When asked about his response to Boston College's decision to cancel a planned visit by Ayers, Nealon said that Boston College faced similar criticism to Brandeis but "there just didn't seem to be a solution in saying, 'You just can't hear this speaker.'"
Liza Behrendt '11, an event coordinator for the visit and a member of Democracy For America, a group co-sponsoring the visit, spoke about the importance of the Ayers visit's appearance on Graham's show, The Natural Truth, on Boston radio station WTKK. On April 23, Behrendt and Graham engaged in a debate for about 10 minutes during which Graham referred to Ayers' ideas about education as "bizarro and lunatic."
On his blog, Graham further criticized the upcoming visit, writing, "The Unibomber, Timothy McVeigh, Osama bin Laden-hey, they've all got something to say and we should give them a forum at Brandeis to say it."
Ayers was a radical anti-war activist in the 1960s and a co-founder of the Weather Underground, a radical protest group blamed for several bombings at the Capitol and Pentagon. The Weather Underground was suspected to have been involved in the shooting of Walter A. Schroeder, a Boston police officer, during a bank robbery in Brighton.
Dennis Nealon, the executive director of media and public affairs for Brandeis, said, "We told the [Boston] Globe and the [Boston] Herald that allowing the talk to proceed does not mean that Brandeis condones the views of the speaker."
"The University does not unilaterally bar someone because some will oppose their views. … This is about freedom of [educational opportunity]," he said.
When asked about his response to Boston College's decision to cancel a planned visit by Ayers, Nealon said that Boston College faced similar criticism to Brandeis but "there just didn't seem to be a solution in saying, 'You just can't hear this speaker.'"
Liza Behrendt '11, an event coordinator for the visit and a member of Democracy For America, a group co-sponsoring the visit, spoke about the importance of the Ayers visit's appearance on Graham's show, The Natural Truth, on Boston radio station WTKK. On April 23, Behrendt and Graham engaged in a debate for about 10 minutes during which Graham referred to Ayers' ideas about education as "bizarro and lunatic."
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Todd Melnick
posted 4/28/09 @ 9:55 AM EST
Justice Brandeis made his reputation on the idea that in a democracy the remedy for bad speech is more speech. Brandeis University was at the very center of the racial/cultural agon of the sixties. (Continued…)
Robert Treat Paine
posted 5/01/09 @ 3:27 PM EST
I fully agree, he should have been permitted to speak. But he should have got a taste of his own brand of protest. I'm sure he didn't.
Hey Brandeis. (Continued…)
A Parent
posted 5/06/09 @ 3:57 PM EST
I was surprised to read the comments of Dennis Nealon, ostensibly the PR person for Brandeis.
Surprised because when the Brandeis President flip-flopped, dissembled and just flat out lied about the Rose Museum, the PR job of cleaning up his mess was outsourced to the same firm that handled the Boston Archdiocese sex scandals. (Continued…)
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