How well or how poorly a college freshman manages to express her ideas is hardly relevant and such gratuitous insults shouldn’t play any part in civilized discourse, but Maloy – like so many on the left – finds it difficult to disguise his contempt for anyone who disagrees with him. It’s clear to any dispassionate reader what Ms. Pizzi was trying to say: some immigrants enter this nation illegally, while others follow the tedious requirements of the law before entering the nation. Is it fair to treat children born in America to both groups the same way? Ms. Pizzi, and millions of other Americans, would say it’s not, and saying that does not make any of them racist, supporters of genocide, hateful or intolerant.
Edward Leffler, a student at Rollins College who serves as Sandspur Section Editor: Opinions, Vice President of the Jewish Student Union, and Student Government Association Parliamentarian, is pressing the college to create a “Student Bill of Rights” in order to protect “…academic integrity, justice, and equality” at Rollins College. Like many Rollins students, Leffler has been appalled at the way members of the faculty and media have attacked Pizzi because she expressed a particular opinion.
“The Sandspur is not a left leaning or right-leaning publication at all,” Leffler said in an interview with FPM. “We try to cover both sides of any issue. Our editors always review submissions for anything that is profane or could incite a riot at Rollins. But, we also train our writers to make the first paragraph of an article a grabber.”
Pizzi dutifully opened her op-ed with a lead paragraph intended to grab the reader’s attention: “How would you feel if a stranger broke into your home, began to eat your food, wear your clothes and watch your television? I am assuming you would not be the slightest bit welcoming to this intruder. Your home and all its contents were purchased with the finances you strenuously worked to obtain.”
Many of her critics on the left interpreted Pizzi’s lead ultra-literally, and declared that the imagery employed was dangerous and disturbing. Leffler reports that the Rollins student body doesn’t appear to share that and other opinions held by some of their left-wing instructors.
“A large majority of the campus is disgusted with the way that some of the faculty has reacted,” Leffler said. “Even left-leaning students agree that method of communication faculty members used hardly was appropriate.
Leffler added that the President of Rollins College, Lewis Duncan has responded to the controversy with a hands-off attitude, but the Dean of Faculty, Debra K. Wellman, expressed her severe discontent with the way some of her colleagues have behaved. Many of the students hope that the college will ultimately hold faculty members accountable for their behavior.
“The majority of the student body believe that if this were a student, they would get a punishment or worse,” Leffler said. “Student at Rollins College believe this situation deserves a strong reaction.”
For now, Leffler and other concerned students are focusing on developing an Academic Bill of Rights, and plan to meet with the President and the Dean of Faculty to discuss the issue this week. They hope to come up with something that we’ll be acceptable to students and faculty members of all political persuasions, so that ugly responses to free expressions of opinion do not occur again at Rollins College.
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