Nicole Higgins DeSmet

Free Press Staff Writer

Middlebury College students shouted down Libertarian political scientist and author Charles Murray as he tried to deliver a speech Thursday afternoon.

"We need to foster a climate where we can listen and respect differences," Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor said in front of the lecture hall as hundreds of students and faculty members lined up outside. Some carried expletive-filled signs.

"We don't have to agree with everything. How do we engage in civil discourse?" Taylor continued.

Murray is known for his 1994 book "The Bell Curve" that asserts genetic variations between races account for differences in socioeconomic success. He had been invited to speak at Middlebury about "Coming Apart," which he authored in 2012. Students planned to disrupt Murray's 4 p.m. speech at the school's McCullough Student Center, according to an email announcement released on Wednesday.

But others waiting in line hoped for a chance to challenge Murray.

"It's important to discredit him by trying to engage with him," Cara Eisenstein, a student of international politics and economics, said. "I'm hopeful there will be an opportunity."

Eisenstein also gave her support to the Department of Political Science that co-sponsored the speaker. The department has reconsidered its original action.

"There's a Q and A afterwards," student David Pesqueira said, "I want to see the focus of his logic and then ask my question."

In the lecture hall a series of speakers took the stage before Murray attempted his lecture.

"I would regret it terribly if my presence here today, which is an expression of support I try to give to all my students [...] is read to be something which it is not, an endorsement of Mr. Murray's teachings and writings," Middlebury College President Laurie L. Patton said to the students, who cheered her before she introduced student Alexandre Khan.

Khan is a member of the American Enterprise Institute Club that invited Murray to speak. Khan introduced Murray as a critic of President Donald Trump's policies and practices, but students shouted him down.

"But he's still a racist," a young woman called out.

Several groups in the audience stood as Murray began to speak. They turned their backs and spoke over him. Single voices merged into a call and response that included, "Who is the enemy? White supremacy," and "Charles Murray go away. Racist. Sexist. Anti-gay."

Faculty observed the proceedings, but no one moved to stop the students who broke almost every college policy regarding protests.

Murray was moved to a private room where administrators streamed live video of his speech to a screen in the McCullough Student Center where about 100 students and faculty remained.

Following the disruption, students scattered through the building trying to find out where the broadcast was coming from.

"We believe that his views are racist. Our goal is not to give him a platform on this campus," student Emma Renai-Durning said before disappearing down a stairwell.

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Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet at ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.