Cal Poly needs to have zero tolerance for hateful speech

In responding to Matthew Hoy’s column (“Cal Poly has learned its lesson when it comes to free speech,” Dec. 17), I call upon Cal Poly and our community to recognize the fundamental difference between free speech, the open exchange of ideas and facts, and hate speech, which promotes bigotry and violence. As a professor at the University of Southern California, I greatly enjoyed the well-prepared and thoughtful arguments of all students, including one of my brightest students — the president of the Republican club. But I never allowed pure prejudice or vitriol toward any group. Such speech debases learning and threatens the safety of others within and without the campus community.

Great universities like Harvard have closed down entire clubs (such as the soccer team) for patterns of denigrating speech toward women. Other major universities, such as Notre Dame, have banned the Stanford marching band for insulting Christianity. Coming myself from a family of leading Republicans, I would urge the leadership of Cal Poly to have zero tolerance for the hateful speech emerging from the campus club.

This story was originally published December 23, 2016 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Cal Poly needs to have zero tolerance for hateful speech."