A student at the center of a dispute over free speech and classroom etiquette at Indiana University of Pennsylvania can return to his religious studies class, and disciplinary proceedings have been shelved — at least temporarily, IUP president Michael Driscoll said Monday.
The student, Lake Ingle, faced university sanctions after he complained in class about a speaker’s opinions on topics including white male privilege, sexism and gender pay disparities.
In a prepared statement Monday, Mr. Driscoll said he had decided to “indefinitely pause” the disciplinary proceedings and allow Mr. Ingle to return to class. Mr. Driscoll said the emotionally charged nature of the dispute and media attention led to a “spate of invective, threat, obscene phone calls and misinformation.”
“As a result of how things have played out, I am afraid that the thoughtful, dispassionate review of the matter is impossible,” he said.
In a brief statement after Mr. Driscoll’s announcement, Mr. Ingle said, “I am thankful the president made the correct decision.”
Mr. Ingle, 23, a senior religious studies major from Tyrone, Blair County, was referred to the university’s Academic Integrity Board after his professor accused him of disrupting class. Mr. Ingle claimed the university violated his right to free speech.
The conflict occurred Feb. 28 in a special topics course called “Self, Sin and Salvation,” which explores a range of Christian perspectives. Students that day had been required to watch a TED Talk presentation by Paula Stone Williams, a transgender woman, Mr. Ingle said.
The professor then opened discussion, allowing women to speak first, Mr. Ingle said. After none of his classmates weighed in, Mr. Ingle said he questioned the professor’s use of the video and complained about what he called “misuse of intellectual power” by the professor and other faculty in IUP's Religious Studies Department.
The next day, the professor told him he had been referred to the Academic Integrity Board. The accusations, according to the referral, included “disrespectful objection to the professor's class discussion structure,” a “refusal to stop talking out of turn” and "angry outbursts in response to being required to listen to a trans speaker.”
According to documents Mr. Ingle shared with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the university barred him from the class until he apologized to the professor and other students. An IUP spokeswoman said he was ultimately allowed to return to class without having to apologize.
Mr. Discoll said he decided to allow Mr. Ingle, whom he did not refer to by name, to return to class after reviewing IUP policies. He acknowledged that his decision “opens me to charges of not following agreed upon processes and policies, and perhaps to grievances and lawsuits,” but said he would rather err on the side of risk when it came to protecting the “fundamental values of IUP.”
He said he has been disappointed in the university’s response to several recent occurrences, including backlash toward a student group that had invited the founder of a national conservative group to campus. The university “fell short” in a test of its commitment to the First Amendment in that instance, he said.
“In a free society, people with opinions you don’t like are allowed to exist, are allowed to speak, and can call you names,” he said.
Moving forward, Mr. Driscoll said he has asked a senior faculty member with “significant experience in the First Amendment” to join Mr. Ingle’s class. And he also has asked an administrator, Pablo Mendoza, the university’s assistant to the president for social equity, to facilitate discussions in the course.
Mr. Driscoll said IUP may reopen the formal disciplinary process “if these steps do not yield positive results.”
First Published: March 19, 2018, 9:58 p.m.
