GOP House Majority Leader takes up campus free speech cause.

Remember the Campus Free Speech issue that came and went this last legislative session and the hearings that were held by the State Board of Regents at the end of June?

This issue might be turning into a bigger deal than they might have thought for them, as GOP House Majority Leader Lee Qualm has directly taken an interest in the issue, and has sent the Board of Regents a letter directly holding their feet to the fire for whatever they may have planned:

Qualm To Board of Regents by Pat Powers on Scribd

After observing incidents squelching of free speech on South Dakota campuses, South Dakota free speech advocates are adamant that the violence and suffocation of free speech that has taken place in Berkeley and other places won’t be allowed to happen here.

With our next Governor interested in and on the record for the Campus Free Speech issue, and now House GOP Leadership weighing in, this isn’t going to be an issue that the Board of Regents can push to the side.

Watch for this to be at the forefront of campus related legislation this next year.

23 thoughts on “GOP House Majority Leader takes up campus free speech cause.”

  1. God bless the majority leader for taking on this important issue. We taxpayers spend hundreds of millions on our universities and they need to be properly run, not controlled by the liberal Democrats as there fiefdom.

  2. I’m glad the Senator is asking how much public money is being spent on “diversity offices” on South Dakota campuses. Not good what’s happening there. Blatant racism

  3. REEEEEE… he must be a Nazi, let’s protest by tearing down a historical statue.

    – Campus Leftists

  4. I think this type of process is more constructive than a first resort attempt to pass a law. We have too many laws. What we need is a better attempt to respect our differences more than we attempt to thwart those with whom we disagree.

  5. Great leadership by Lee Qualm! It’s finally time that the universities ask some tough questions about what they’ve allowed to happen in campus. I’m tired of funding the lefties.

  6. Thanks goodness someone is pushing the colleges to have people on campus teaching besides liberals and leftists and angry Bernie lovers. At my campus, there are no people here who are not leftists. Is that fair to students???

    1. Platonic,

      Malcom Gladwell says it was wrong for the New Yorker to withdraw Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s invitation to speak, whereas Judd Apatow said: “I hope the @NewYorker will do the right thing and cancel the event.” If USD students invite Steve Bannon to speak on campus, will you decry it, or will you defend Bannon’s right to express views with which you disagree? Do you side with the hypocrites who claim to cherish unfettered free speech but who deny platforms to any who express “problematic” views? Where do you stand on the cowards attacking speakers rather than debating ideas? In my experience, 75% of progressives support free speech if and only if they set the parameters, excluding any topic they deem offensive.

  7. The South Dakota state University I attended sure was not a Liberal factory. My professors were Conservative going towards Libertarian. If that was considered Liberal than are you trying to turn the University system into Liberty University? Oral Roberts University Brookings campus?

    1. I don’t think SDSU could ever possibly be as good as either of the two private schools you mentioned. Why? Because they are government schools.

      1. It could be the next culture war for the SDGOP legislature. Privatize a few or all Universities and turn them into religious institutions. What faith that is up to the legislature to fight over. South Dakota could be in the news again. 🙂

  8. SDSU is now a hotbed of liberals. There are NO conservatives there. Zero. The Black Lives Matter group at SDSU is very powerful. I’m glad the legislature is finally investigating this! Cut their funds!! they must reform

  9. Northern sure was not liberal.

    You make it sound like SDSU has ANTIFA & Weather Underground gangs roaming around setting fires and vandalizing.

  10. we saw all we need to see on what free speech is to liberals today during the confirmation hearing where people in the seats screamed protest rhymes during what is supposed to be a hearing.

  11. This letter from Lee is a great start. Now we need some laws to deball the liberal conspiracy that controls the universities. Start by abolishing tenure.

  12. Some real diversity of political views on campus would be very welcome. All my profs are Bernie Sanders wannabes. I hope this state senator is successful at reforming this rigged game

  13. Why is everybody so keen on echo-chamberfying the universities? Many of you have complained about the left lean of professors – so what? If you don’t agree with them, challenge them! But don’t get whiny when they put you in your place. If that doesn’t feel good, that’s perfectly fine – it shouldn’t! – rather, it should compel you to double-down, hone your argument, and come back intellectually swinging.

    The proposed line of action here is completely antithetical to any sort of critical thought. Frankly, that isn’t too surprising. Proponents of the above suggestions are likely cut from the same cloth as those who think voters are “hoodwinked” and the like. You don’t seem to hold anybody’s intellect in very high esteem both others’ and your own.

    But, responding to the above, why, for instance, would any university need an ideological chairperson? That makes no sense. If you are a conservative, just be better at making arguments and convincing your peers! If you can manage that, maybe you will rise the ranks and become a thought leader that way. What you want, though, isn’t hard work – you want a shortcut. Left leaning professors getting you down! Bah! Abolish them, cut their funding, chop them down! This is pathetic; you should, instead, hit the books, get ready for some punches, and deliver them back. Students who employ this mindset rather than the easy-peasy route you’re suggesting here are the ones who will get knocked down, brush themselves off, and jump right back into the ring. Frankly, we need more critical thinkers like that. But what is being proposed here is completely off base.

  14. Platonic, you should be a better representative of your monikersake and, instead of that logic fallacy, recognize the difference in power and authority of these monolithic professors.

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