Funding frozen for conservative student groups at Northwestern after James Lindsay event

Northwestern University’s student government is retaliating against its College Republicans and Young America’s Foundation chapter for hosting James Lindsay, a conservative speaker, by freezing their funding and demanding the university open an investigation that may or may not already be ongoing.

In an emergency meeting, the school’s Associated Student Government, or ASG, scrambled to pass a resolution that condemned the two groups for their event flyers, which mimicked the design of one of the guest speaker’s books, by adding a skull and crossbones cartoon onto sunglasses with the Pride flag.

“Merriam Webster defines the skull and crossbones symbol as representing ‘a warning of danger to life,’” the resolution reads. It goes on to argue that superimposing this image over the Pride sunglasses constitutes a “violation of Northwestern University’s Comprehensive Policy on Discrimination and Harassment.”

“Pending the conclusion of the University’s ongoing investigation of the conduct above, that the transaction of SAFC funds by both Northwestern College Republicans and Northwestern Young Americans for Freedom be frozen,” the resolution concludes. The event in question featured Lindsay, a writer best known for his work exposing so-called “grievance studies,” where he and some colleagues convinced left-wing academic publications to run with their work about absurd topics like “the conceptual penis.” 

“They want to launch an investigation over a meme,” one Northwestern senior told me. “What do they want to ban next, Pirates of the Caribbean?” While Northwestern did not respond to request for comment about the status of any investigation, College Republicans president Agustin Bayer told The Spectator that he believes one would be “pointless and unwarranted,” adding that “the university hasn’t told us anything about it.” The resolution stripping College Republicans of funding came without ASG even notifying the club, according to the group’s leadership.

Bayer said that even though the ASG resolution claims to be about a flyer, it’s really about silencing conservatives. “It’s about Lindsay and dissenting opinion,” he told The Spectator. “They thought they had sent conservatives into silence. The flyer is just an excuse. After an event, advertising material is moot, it’s irrelevant.” 

The flyer’s design is a take on Lindsay’s book, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity — And Why this Harms Everybody. That’s exactly what Lindsay spoke about, in an event that one attendee described as “uncontroversial,” Nevertheless, the talk attracted scores of protesters, and condemnation from Northwestern’s president, Michael Schill, whose office told student activists that many of Lindsay’s views are “antithetical to Northwestern’s values.” 

Even without a formal investigation, the campus left’s problems were with Lindsay, flyer or no flyer. Professor Annie Wilkinson, who teaches gender and sexuality studies, told school paper the Daily Northwestern that Lindsay speaking is “unacceptable.” 

“One of the most important responses to ‘dangerous speech’ is communicating norms that such harmful speech is unacceptable,” she said. “By giving Lindsay a platform on campus, Northwestern is failing at that.”

The school’s student government did plan for the Lindsay event, offering “mental health support” and to reimburse protesters for the cost of supplies like “poster board, soda and markers.” The school’s small cadre of conservatives told me that they don’t think these resources were meant for them. “We don’t think we need it, because we’re not mentally unstable people,” Bayer said.

By even offering these materials, ASG’s critics such as Bayer claim the organization is inherently taking a stance. “ASG is clearly taking a political side when they fund the protesters, but undermine our ability to honor our commitment to the security that was mandated by the university to keep Mr. Lindsay and attendees safe.”

Even if Northwestern’s investigation were solely about a flyer, the school has a reputation of overt hostility to free speech and debate, which this incident will only further fuel. One incident in particular exposed the soft underbelly of the school, which boasts what claims to be one of America’s premier journalism schools.

In 2019, Jeff Sessions dared speak at Northwestern at a YAF event. That event — the most recent high-profile conservative speaker on campus — was hosted by Bayer’s brother. Once Sessions arrived, all hell broke loose. Protesters swarmed, as is the norm. But during the protest, student reporters dared to photograph and publish pictures of activists.

Activists then demanded that these budding journalists delete their reporting. The Daily Northwestern obliged, and deleted the “retraumatizing and invasive” articles. Troy Closson, the paper’s editor-in-chief, who now works at the New York Times, demanded that all criticism be directed his way. When a reporter from the Washington Free Beacon showed up at the paper’s office to ask some questions, Closson hid in the paper’s office for three hours, only to emerge and say that he can’t answer any questions because he is “focusing on his own health.”

Separately, another student introduced a “Resolution Affirming the Northwestern University Student Body’s Commitment to Freedom of Speech” to the school’s student government. The resolution proved too much for Northwestern’s student government to even debate; it voted 12-11-3 to suspend debate on the resolution indefinitely. 

“While Northwestern claims to be an intellectually rigorous institution, it coddles its students by supporting their inane assertions that anything they disagree with is ‘dangerous’ — and by indoctrinating instead of teaching,” a Northwestern senior told The Spectator. “The administration apparently agrees with its screeching left-wing activists that any conservative thought must be snuffed out wherever it appears on campus. The inmates are running the asylum.” The school’s previous president, Morton Schapiro, once took to the pages of the Washington Post to proclaim his love of “safe spaces.” 

Northwestern University and student government members did not respond to multiple requests for comment.