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Aaron Sibarium

25 Oct, 13 tweets, 3 min read

BREAKING: Yale Law School's Office of Student Affairs has removed all administrator profiles from its website "to protect staff members" in the wake of widespread outrage about the school's treatment of Trent Colbert. freebeacon.com/campus/damage-…

Two of those administrators, Yale Law diversity director Yaseen Eldik and Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove, suggested that Colbert could have trouble with the bar if he didn't apologize for his invitation.

That wasn't an empty threat: According to a now-deleted version of the student affairs website, Cosgrove's remit involves the bar exam's "character and fitness" investigations, which review aspiring lawyers' disciplinary records in considerable detail.

Eldik's profile is no longer viewable on any Yale Law website, though he remains listed as a "discrimination and harassment resource coordinator" with the university. dhr.yale.edu/discrimination…

An entry for Cosgrove—which contains no mention of her "character and fitness" duties—is still viewable on the law school's main website. Archived web pages indicate that the profiles were scrubbed between Oct. 13 and Oct. 18. law.yale.edu/about-yale-law…

Debra Kroszner, a spokeswoman for the university, said the "profile page for the Office of Student Affairs was temporarily taken down to protect staff members who have been receiving threatening emails and phone calls."

But contact information for both Eldik and Cosgrove remains publicly available on the university's website for "discrimination and harassment concerns."

Both administrators came under fire after the Washington Free Beacon published audio of their conversations with Colbert.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) likened Eldik and Cosgrove's veiled threats to a mafia shakedown. "That's a nice legal career you've got ahead of you," FIRE's Aaron Terr limned the exchange. "Would be a real shame if something happened to it."

The Atlantic‘s Conor Friedersdorf wrote that "the behavior of Yale Law's diversity bureaucrats was unethical, discreditable, and clearly incompatible with key values that the elite law school purports to uphold." theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

And the Washington Post‘s Ruth Marcus said Cosgrove and Eldik's language was "reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution," a comparison that Yale Law School's Asian-American affinity group called "offensively racist." freebeacon.com/campus/yale-la…

Professors at Yale Law School were likewise aghast at the administrators' conduct. Roberta Romero, a professor of corporate law, threatened to "correct the record" if the law school did not admit to having punished protected speech. freebeacon.com/campus/convuls…

Another professor slammed the school's initial statement in the wake of the controversy, saying it was "appallingly disingenuous and full of falsehoods."

Some have even called for the administrators to be fired.

"If, after a full and fair hearing, administrators are found guilty of violating free speech or other academic freedom rights of students or faculty, they should be dismissed," said Princeton University's Robert George. "Until this begins to happen, you can expect more of this."

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More from @aaronsibarium

Aaron Sibarium

@aaronsibarium

25 Oct

What do Martha Nussbaum, JD Vance, Nicholas Christakis, and Tom Cotton have in common? They're all outraged by Yale Law School's recent conduct—with Cotton going so far as to threaten Yale's federal funding.

Here's why such threats won't do anything: 🧵

bit.ly/3nqJZnv

Cotton told the Free Beacon that if Yale Law wants to "keep getting federal funds," it "should focus on teaching the law and protect the free speech of [its] students."

But it is the threat of losing federal funds that motivates censorship in the first place.

Though private schools like Yale are not bound by the 1A, they are bound by civil rights laws that forbid discrimination and harassment. That means they have an incentive to flout their own speech protections whenever a student registers offense, no matter how trivial it seems.

Read 25 tweets

Aaron Sibarium

@aaronsibarium

18 Oct

NEW: Yale Law administrators are doing damage control as faculty members slam the school's dishonesty—and as students continue to go after Colbert.

One YLS professor told the school: "Please correct the record—I would not want to have to do it for you." freebeacon.com/campus/convuls…

Today, YLS dean Heather Gerken promised an investigation into the controversy. YLS told the Free Beacon that this investigation would not result in any further action against Colbert. "As our statement last week made clear, this is protected speech," a YLS spokesperson said.

The law school's statement, released Oct. 13 in the wake of my Free Beacon story, denied that Colbert faced "any disciplinary investigation" or action over his email. That denial sparked fierce blowback from two YLS professors who lambasted the dishonesty of their own university.

Read 21 tweets

Aaron Sibarium

@aaronsibarium

17 Oct

@DavidLat

Among the many damning details in this @DavidLat interview with Trent Colbert: other members of the Native American group chat had liked his messages using "trap house." If the term had racial connotations, Yale's Native students weren't aware of them.

davidlat.substack.com/p/the-yale-law…

@DavidLat

@DavidLat "I had been calling our house the 'NALSA trap house' for months before this incident. I had been calling it that in messages with other NALSA board members for months, and nobody had said anything to me about it."

@DavidLat

@DavidLat A friend of Colbert's, also interviewed by Lat, alludes to an important point: the internet has sped up the pace of memetic evolution to such a degree that a 3-4 year age difference can completely change how one uses and perceives certain slang.

Read 5 tweets

Aaron Sibarium

@aaronsibarium

15 Oct

Some people have claimed that my article left out crucial details that exonerate the Yale Law administrators. This excellent follow-up from FIRE shows that, on the contrary, the added details is even more damning. Let's walk through some of them: 🧵

thefire.org/how-yale-law-s…

The administrators "repeatedly reference[d] their administrative roles — the need to produce a final 'report' to the university’s administration, the possibility of a 'formal recommendation' for bias training"—and "at no time" assured the student his speech was protected.

"Even if Colbert was being deliberately provocative"—and there is no reason to think that he was—"his speech is still protected by Yale’s explicit promises of free expression. But those policies were no obstacle to Yale administrators."

Read 21 tweets

Aaron Sibarium

@aaronsibarium

13 Oct

Administrators at Yale Law School spent weeks pressuring a student to apologize for a "triggering" email he sent out. Part of what made the email "triggering," the administrators told the student, was his membership in a conservative organization. 🧵freebeacon.com/campus/a-yale-…

The second-year law student, a member of both the Native American Law Students Association and the conservative Federalist Society, had invited classmates to an event cohosted by the two groups. Here is what the student wrote in an email to the Native American listserv:

The student is part Cherokee, the Indian tribe that was forcibly displaced during the infamous Trail of Tears.

Within minutes, the email elicited furious accusations of racism from his classmates, several of whom alleged that the term "trap house" indicated a blackface party.

Read 31 tweets

Aaron Sibarium

@aaronsibarium

12 Oct

SCOOP: Students at one of the oldest and most prestigious boys schools in the United States could soon face expulsion for a single "misplaced" joke, according to a draft "anti-bias" policy obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

freebeacon.com/campus/leaked-…

Long seen as a conservative holdout among private schools,
St. Albans is considering a crackdown on "harmful" speech that prioritizes the impact of the speech rather than the intent of the speaker.

"It is the impact of hate speech, rather than the intent of those perpetrating it, that is of utmost importance," the draft policy states. As such, boys could be expelled "even in the case of a single expression, act, or gesture"—including "misplaced humor.”

Read 17 tweets

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