After being shouted down by disruptive protesters at Cornell University just two years ago, conservative commentator Ann Coulter will return to the Ivy League campus in April, this time with the support of university officials promising to protect free speech on campus.
Coulter is slated to come to campus April 19 in the universitys Myron Taylor Hall, where she will speak about the topic of immigration, followed by a short question and answer session.
After The Cornell Daily Sun broke the news in March of Coulters invite to return to campus, Provost Michael Kotlikoff released a statement clarifying that he supported the effort to invite Coulter back to campus, after having been deeply troubled at the fact that her last visit to her alma mater in 2022 ended with her walking out of the room after 27 fruitless minutes of attempting to deliver her speech despite disruptive protesters.
[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Cornell students cancel Coulters speech]
At the time, Cornell promised that the students responsible for ruining the event would be punished. Now, Kotlikoff says he expects the April event will proceed as planned, and that Coulter will be allowed to deliver her remarks in full.
I agreed that there could be few more powerful demonstrations of Cornells commitment to free expression than to have Ms. Coulter return to campus and present her views, wrote Kotlikoff in his statement published by The Cornell Daily Sun. This is certainly not because I agree with what she has to say, or because I feel that the content of her presentation is important for our community to hear, but because I believe that Cornell must be a place where the presentation of ideas is protected and inviolable.
[RELATED: UPDATE: Cornell commits to punishing students who disrupted Ann Coulters speech]
Shielding students or others in our community from viewpoints with which they disagree, or filtering campus speakers based on the content of their presentation, undermines the fundamental role of a university, he continued.
But many students are not supportive of Kotlikoffs efforts to support free speech on campus. The editorial board of The Cornell Daily Sun called the invite a case study in hypocrisy, insisting that Obviously, the administration doesnt want an ideal campus, but rather to pull Cornell as far away from democracy as possible.
Tickets for the event are available here.
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LET'S TRY AGAIN: Ann Coulter returns to Cornell. Provost tells students they have to let her speak this time. - Campus Reform