Karen Herzog

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Ripon College is being bombarded with angry and threatening messages after a conservative website published an article saying the Wisconsin college was pressuring a student group to remove from its annual 9/11 memorial a poster that graphically depicts terrorism as Islamic.

Ripon College says it did not ban the poster but had an "intellectual exchange" with leaders of a campus Young Americans for Freedom chapter about how the poster could be viewed as "biased" against Muslim students. The college also says the author of the article on the Young Americans for Freedom website never contacted college officials while reporting the story, and disputes the article's depiction.

The "extremely false" story, in a college spokeswoman's words, has spread like wildfire across conservative radio shows, newspapers and websites around the country since it was posted online Wednesday afternoon. The author of the original story says his story was based on an audio recording of a meeting between student leaders and college administrators earlier this week.

It's the latest volley in what has become a heated national debate about free speech on college campuses, as colleges attempt to address biases that make some students feel targeted and unwelcome.

"We don't know where this came from," Ripon spokeswoman Melissa Anderson said Friday of how Ripon's position on the matter was depicted in the article.

Anderson said there have been ongoing conversations with students in the campus chapter of Young Americans for Freedom to "help them understand there may be biases involved in the posters" and to brainstorm ways a poster about terrorism could "do what it needs to do without being biased."

"They were too graphic and only depicted one ethnicity in all the pictures," Anderson said of the poster, which was created by the national umbrella organization for distribution on college campuses across the country.

Anderson said when the poster was placed around campus in previous years, students reported concerns about its ethnic depiction of terrorists.

Social media blows up

Since Wednesday afternoon, Ripon's social media accounts have blown up, recording 979 reactions, comments and shares on Facebook related to a statement the college posted on its own Facebook page.

Some of the messages have included threats, including one on Twitter that expressed hope someone would shoot up the Ripon campus.

Anderson said she and others on campus have been working around the clock to respond to emails, phone calls and social media posts.

The Young Americans for Freedom article says the college "ruled that YAF's 9/11: Never Forget Project posters are creating an 'environment' where 'students from a Muslim background would feel singled out and/or harassed.'"

"As a result, Ripon administrators will not allow the Ripon Young Americans for Freedom to hang the flyers as part of their work to remember the victims of September 11 or other victims of radical Islamist terrorism," says the article written by Spencer Brown, national spokesman for Young Americans for Freedom.

The college is stressing it did not ban the posters, and that it does not have a posting policy or requirement that posters be pre-approved before being placed on campus.

Brown said the word "ban" was not used in his original report.

While the college says none of the things Brown reported were said by anyone on the Bias Incident Team, Brown said his reporting was based on an audio recording of a meeting earlier this week involving the team, administrators and leaders of Young Americans for Freedom.

"The school seems to be attempting to change the narrative by attacking aggregate coverage that used the word 'ban' (not in my original report)," Brown said in an email to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"In doing so, Ripon is trying to pretend that the spirit of their bias team’s ruling and factually-incorrect lecture in the meeting wasn’t intended to dissuade students from displaying the posters this year, when it clearly was.

"Too often in our work with students across the country we at YAF see administrators use this same tactic to shame students into shying away from their planned activities," Brown told the newspaper.

When the terrorism posters were put up on campus last year, "it led to a vigorous debate on campus, including counter postings," said Anderson, the Ripon spokeswoman.

She stressed the Bias Incident Team that met with student leaders of the campus chapter of Young Americans for Freedom has no authority to require any actions, such as banning posters.

"Their only role is to investigate concerns and report findings to the appropriate vice-president for action. In this case, that report did not result in any action," Anderson said.

She shared with the Journal Sentinel a Wednesday morning email sent by the dean of faculty to the dean of students. Both attended the meeting earlier this week that sparked the controversy.

"I attended the Bias Incident Team's meeting with YAF leadership yesterday, at the team's request," Dean of Faculty Ed Wingenbach wrote to Dean of Students Christopher Ogle.

"While the team did a great job explaining why the posters represent a bias issue, the YAF leadership seemed committed to putting up the posters again this year," Wingenbach wrote.

"There was some conversation about ways in which they might produce or modify posters to decrease the potential for harm, but it was clear that their intent is to use the posters the national organization sends," Wingenbach wrote.

"The team made it clear to the students that the Bias Incident Team is not a disciplinary organization; the team makes a finding and sends that finding to the appropriate VP for action," Wingenbach wrote.

"As things currently stand, YAF can (and I suspect will) put up the same posters again. It would require action from your office to stop that, or to place conditions upon it. If you want to discuss the meeting or options for proceeding, let me know — I'm happy to advise," the dean of faculty told the dean of students.

Anderson said the college has received a lot of support, once the college explains its side of the story.

Among the voicemails the college received was one that advised:

"Why don't you do yourself a favor and hurry up, fix the situation before it gets out of control. You are literally siding with Muslim extremists. Leftists of the country and Muslim extremists are the same people. Leftists are Muslim terrorists."