This spring has not been a good one for free speech at our universities.
Brandeis rescinded an honorary degree offered to a critic of Islamist violence, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Rutgers students and staff forced Condoleezza Rice to back out of delivering their commencement address. And Smith students did the same to IMF chief Christine Lagarde.
Now it’s New York’s turn.
In Albany, senate Democrats are vowing to hold up Gov. Cuomo’s nominee for CUNY’s board of trustees, former Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro. His crime?
Two years ago, Molinaro said Lady Gaga was not a good role model. He famously dismissed her as “a slut, in the pure meaning of the word.”
Now, Lady Gaga loves to shock, reveling in sexually provocative imagery in her videos and appearing in public in various states of undress. In a 2010 story in Vanity Fair, she said, “I think people want to make me look like a slutty Italian girl, which I am.”
Which leads to the obvious question: Why is it OK for Lady Gaga to use sex to provoke and to describe herself as slutty, while it’s offensive for Molinaro to use the same word in expressing his reaction to her?
It seems tolerance for provocative speech and actions works only in one direction.
This is madness. Cuomo needs to stick by his CUNY pick. And send the message that at New York’s public universities, leaders will not be bullied into surrender to the political correctness of the moment.