Legislative action follows dispute over ASU center
Sasha Hupka
Arizona Republic
A Republican-led legislative committee will investigate freedom of expression at Arizona’s public universities, according to documents from state lawmakers describing the new effort.
The formation of the committee comes just weeks after Ann Atkinson, the former director of an Arizona State University center devoted to personal development and conservative values, publicly alleged that she lost her job after bringing several right-wing speakers to campus in February for an event titled “Health, Wealth and Happiness.”
The university has strongly denied that claim, saying the center shut down because the donor who created and funded it, Tom Lewis, pulled his donation.
“Mr. Lewis decided to discontinue funding that paid for more than $300,000 per year in salary and benefits costs for the executive director of the now-dissolved center,” university officials said in a statement issued Friday. “But the speaker series and classes that were created by the center will continue at ASU, and the faculty who delivered that content through the center will continue to do so.”
All three of Arizona’s public universities — ASU, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University — boast “green light” speech ratings from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, an organization that advocates for more freedom of speech on college campuses. FIRE annually analyzes the policies that regulate student expression at nearly 500 colleges and universities across the country, with the “green light” rating being the highest a school can receive.
The Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees all three universities, also has its own permanent committee on free expression.
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