Fordham College Republicans disinvite Ann Coulter, apologize for inviting her in the first place

... After the State College, Pa., Centre Daily Times dropped the conservative Coulter last week, more than 95% of the 4,000-plus e-mails it received supported the cancellation ...

The Coulter column angering the Centre Daily Times said Republicans are nicer than they should be to liberals. "I will say that there is only one thing wrong with liberals: they're no good," she wrote, later calling the Kennedys "a family of heroin addicts, statutory rapists, convicted and unconvicted female-killers, cheaters, bootleggers, and dissolute drunks."

Unger responded in a column addressed to Coulter: "You're fired. ... You are either a hater or a hypocrite who calls names and spews enmity because you believe it will get your pretty face on television more or sell more copies of your best-selling books. ... I'm not going to defend the Kennedy family or liberals. ... But, Ann, you're mean -- vicious, really -- which is why we do not believe that you in any way serve the public good" ...

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To say that I am disappointed with the judgment and maturity of the College Republicans, however, would be a tremendous understatement. There are many people who can speak to the conservative point of view with integrity and conviction, but Ms. Coulter is not among them. Her rhetoric is often hateful and needlessly provocative — more heat than light — and her message is aimed squarely at the darker side of our nature.

As members of a Jesuit institution, we are called upon to deal with one another with civility and compassion, not to sling mud and impugn the motives of those with whom we disagree or to engage in racial or social stereotyping. In the wake of several bias incidents last spring, I told the University community that I hold out great contempt for anyone who would intentionally inflict pain on another human being because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or creed.

“Disgust” was the word I used to sum up my feelings about those incidents. Hate speech, name-calling, and incivility are completely at odds with the Jesuit ideals that have always guided and animated Fordham.

Still, to prohibit Ms. Coulter from speaking at Fordham would be to do greater violence to the academy, and to the Jesuit tradition of fearless and robust engagement. Preventing Ms. Coulter from speaking would counter one wrong with another. The old saw goes that the answer to bad speech is more speech. This is especially true at a university, and I fully expect our students, faculty, alumni, parents, and staff to voice their opposition, civilly and respectfully, and forcefully.