ADMIN: Letter to Students re: Monday’s speakers

Note: This is the mass email that Damon Sims sent to all students in response to the community alert sent out earlier in the day on October 20, 2022 by SCDS (read: tinyurl.com/communityalertmcinnes). In this response, Sims equivocates student activists to a fascist gang leader—both of which have been labelled “provocateurs” by Penn State Admin—and attempts to chill students’ right to protest.

Dear Students —

Many of you received a mass email earlier today encouraging direct confrontation with two controversial speakers who have been invited to campus on Monday by a recognized student organization and discouraging your participation in a community-building event at the same time in the HUB. I implore you not to take the bait.

The student organization Uncensored America is hosting a presentation on Monday by two individuals, one of whom is the founder of the Proud Boys. The University does not endorse this event and strongly and unquestionably rejects the hateful rhetoric for which these speakers have been responsible.

But the fundamental freedom of thought and expression protected by the First Amendment obligates a public university to allow even speakers with whom it most strongly disagrees, when those speakers are invited by the faculty or a recognized student organization. We cannot stop Monday’s planned event simply because we, many of you, and others find these speakers deeply offensive.

But neither can we sit idly while provocateurs opposed to these speakers encourage you to act in ways that may increase risk to yourselves and our community. The Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity, which claims credit for today’s email, is irresponsibly inviting confrontation. I strongly encourage you not to follow their lead.

Instead, attend the Student Programming Association’s Together We Are event in the HUB on Monday evening. That event will be an expression of true solidarity and an ideal way for all of us to defend ourselves and our community against the divisiveness that otherwise threatens to overwhelm our better natures.

Those who are expert in hate groups tell us time and again that engaging them is the wrong response. Doing so merely amplifies their hate. It feeds their angry purpose.

Instead, come together as one community, in celebration of what bonds us — care and consideration for one another and the collective strength to resist the easy and pointless temptation to strike back.

Sincerely,

Damon Sims

Vice President for Student Affairs