Howard University administration has “done everything in its power” to exclude students from an upcoming lecture series with former FBI Director James Comey on race and law enforcment, claimed a campus activist group recently.
Comey will lead a series beginning Wednesday at Howard, to the dismay of HU Resist, a campus activist group, Buzzfeed reports. Administrators are ensuring that students are “unable to challenge” Comey, who is an endowed chair, said the group in a statement.
“We find it both appalling and disrespectful that such a person is given a platform to discuss ‘law enforcement and race’ at our Historically Black University,” the activists wrote. “Our message is clear: James Comey is not welcome here.”
Students had previously protested Comey’s convocation speech at the school earlier this year after saying his FBI background made him “antithetical to the social justice movements championed by young black activists and Howard itself.”
Comey will only speak with a handful of university community members, and administrators are screening those students carefully, the student activist said. Three dozen students RSVP’d for the lecture, but none have been approved to attend, explained a group representative.
The administration’s action allows them “to effectively ban student activists from participating” in Comey lecture, the first of five forthcoming public speaking engagements on public policy.
Admittance for the lecture was done on a first-come-first-serve basis and questions will be selected by the campus newspaper editor who will lead the Q&A, said Howard University in a statement to Buzzfeed.
Comey, who pledged to donate his $100,000 salary to a Howard scholarship for students in foster care, conducted a discussion with a Constitutional law class of nearly 50 students Tuesday.
“There are plenty members of our community who are eager and excited to engage in rich dialogue with Mr. Comey, as evidenced by yesterday’s class,” Crystal Brown, Howard’s vice president and chief communications officer, told BuzzFeed.
HU Resist, however, contends that pre-determined questions directed to Comey will cut off chances for real dialogue. They plan to “carefully” curate their own questions to ask after his lecture on law enforcement and race.
“It’s interesting that Comey talked about freedom of speech at convocation, yet in order to attend the series you have to be pre-approved,” a group activist said.
The group, who has also opposed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Trump, met with administrators about Comey, but said their concerns were “blatantly disregarded,” The Washington Post reports.
Comey said he “loves the enthusiasm of the young folks,” but “wishes they would understand what a conversation is” about the group’s concerns.
SOURCE: Buzzfeed, The Washington Post
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Howard University Activists Say School Banned Them From James Comey Lecture was originally published on newsone.com
