In late November, a second hearing by the Joint Legislative Ad Hoc Committee on Freedom of Expression at Arizona’s Public Universities reviewed the investigative report published by Arizona State University in response to the allegations that Barrett, The Honor’s College restricted free speech to hinder the “Health, Wealth & Happiness” event put on by the former T.W. Lewis Center on Feb. 8. This event featured several speakers including Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk.
Only Republican lawmakers were present at this hearing as the Democrat committee members, as well as representatives from ASU, boycotted the hearing. The committee concluded that they were inclined to decrease future funding for ASU.
In the first hearing on July 18, ASU was given 60 days to respond to these allegations and conduct an internal review. ASU then published its findings in a 75-page report to the committee on Sept. 15, concluding that Barrett did not prevent the event from occurring or hinder freedom of expression. However, with no representatives from ASU present at Monday’s hearing, lawmakers were left with many concerns and unanswered questions.
Both Tom Lewis, who cancelled his funding from ASU, and Linda Blake, who testified that she was allegedly fired over this incident, spoke to the lawmakers on this committee about the impact of strict censorship at public universities. In his testimony to the committee, Lewis emphasized the importance of not intimidating conservative students and allowing free speech for all.
“I felt it was important that I attend the legislative hearing so the lawmakers could hear directly from me why I cancelled my gift to Arizona State University and why free speech should not be suppressed on our college campuses,” said Lewis. “It was disappointing that the Democrats and representatives from ASU chose not to attend the hearing. We could have had a public debate over his matter, but they chose not to.”
Robert Kiyosaki (who spoke at the first Health, Wealth, and Happiness event) and Ann Atkinson were both in attendance in the audience.
Conservative students, and we few conservative faculty, at Arizona’s state universities do not feel safe expressing our ideas. We often self-censor. We experience many kinds of consequences for not conforming to the radical-leftist campus climate. But the Az State Legislature is… pic.twitter.com/piL5wtSECq
— Dr Owen Anderson (@dr_owenanderson) November 28, 2023
The final hearing is scheduled to occur in early January 2024