The purpose of Ayers’ visit would have been lost to the controversy and public outcry over the invitation, a member of a discussion panel concerning the cancellation of William Ayers’ visit to UW said.
“It’s major purpose, I felt, would be lost,” Francisco Rios, director of the UW Social Justice Research Center, said.
Rios, Gregg Cawley, a professor in the political science department; Steve Bialostok, a professor in the College of Education; and Myron Allen, vice president of the Office of Academic Affairs, made up the panel who discussed the cancellation Tuesday in the Union Ballroom.
Veiled threats of violence against the university emerged prior to, and after, the cancellation was announced, Rios said. In response to threats, local and state law enforcement and Homeland Security were contacted.
As director of the UW Social Justice Research Center—the campus entity that invited Ayers to come and speak—Rios received numerous negative e-mails and phone messages decrying the invitation, he said.
“They were difficult to read and listen to,” Rios said. “The majority were hostile.”
The cancellation of Ayers’ visit to UW may have a negative effect on the free exchange of ideas on campus, Bialostok said.
“We owe our students and public opportunities to hear challenging views,” Bialostok said.
Ayers’ discussion was meant to focus on his experiences teaching kindergarten and his ideas on how to improve the quality of education poor and minority students receive from failing schools, Rios said.
Principals from across Wyoming were invited to speak personally with Ayers during his visit about his concepts on how to improve primary education, Rios said.
Bialostok questioned whether the controversy and visceral nature of comments against Ayers’ visit may have less to do with his involvement in the Weather Underground—a radical group opposed to the Vietnam War who bombed a number of government building in the ‘70s—and more to do with the polarized political climate that exists in the in the U.S. today.
The controversy grew, in large part, out of the 2008 presidential election, where Obama was accused of “palling around with terrorists” because of connections made between now President Obama and Ayers, Bialostok said.
There was nowhere near the level of controversy when past speakers who may be considered to be just as radical, if not more so, have come to speak on campus, Cawley said.
Cawley explained there was little or no outrage concerning Angela Davis, a member of the 1960s African American separatist organization, the Black Panthers, and her past visit to campus.
“Angela Davis has radical credentials greater than Ayers,” Cawley said. “Angela Davis should have been as controversial.”
When Cawley asked the audience to name another member of the Weather Underground besides Ayers, only a handful could name another member of the group.
Davis has largely fallen from public awareness, whereas Ayers’ name is much better known because of the presidential election, Cawley said.
Ideally, UW and other universities should be able to act as a neutral forum for the discussion and exchange of ideas, whether they are controversial or not, Allen said.
“A university is a poor stage for political theater,” Allen said. “We’re not the place to play out political battles.”
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