Klocek Returns to DePaul

John J. Miller has a post on Phi Beta Cons announcing that DePaul University will soon be the site of another controversial event when Professor Thomas Klocek returns to campus on January 24, along with David Horowitz, to discuss the role of free speech at Catholic universities.

In 2005, FIRE advocated for Klocek, who was dismissed without a hearing from his position as a religious studies professor after he got into an out-of-class argument with students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Klocek subsequently filed a lawsuit against the school.

His visit to campus will be sponsored by the College Republicans, who have sought help from FIRE to combat censorship at DePaul several times in the past year. In December 2005, FIRE intervened when DePaul prevented the organization from protesting a lecture on campus by controversial speaker Ward Churchill, and in 2006, FIRE again got involved when the College Republicans were disciplined for holding an “affirmative-action bakesale” to express their opposition to affirmative action at the school.

Familiar with the culture of censorship at DePaul, College Republicans president Nick Hahn stated in the press release posted on Phi Beta Cons that, “We have heard of a leftist protest campaign hell-bent on preventing the event from happening. However, we will press forward with the forum. Now, more than ever, DePaul needs to enter the free speech discourse.”

FIRE is anxious to see how events unfold on January 24.