Notable & Quotable: Speech at Virginia Tech

One need not be a mystic to anticipate BIRT’s [Virginia Tech Bias Intervention Response Team policy’s] foreseeable effects: Students holding conservative or otherwise heterodox views on controversial topics are more likely to be reported for bias. Indeed, “anonymous reports carr[y] particular overtones of intimidation to students whose views are ‘outside the mainstream.’ ” It takes courage to express unpopular or “incorrect” views, even under the very best of circumstances. Pile BIRT on top of all this, and students with pro-life, anti-affirmative action, restrictive immigration views and traditional religious beliefs have been made conspicuous targets. Sometimes, people at the University do not even try to hide their hostility toward conservative students who hold dissenting values. When students filed this current lawsuit, a Virginia Tech tenured professor took to Twitter to publicly call the students “conservative s—tbags” who were “suing the school because they’re bigots.”

It is beyond wrong to place these students in the crosshairs.