The Cost of Free Speech

For Hilltopics


This Letter from the Editor was inspired by an event that occurred on campus: a show by a man named Thomas Crowder. I know I go to a strongly right-leaning school, and so when I learned that a transphobic, ass was coming to campus I wasn’t phased. When I learned that SMU had paid him 15k, however, it got to me. That was my money, going to a bigot. Usually I can pass these things by, but this one bothered me too much, so I wrote about it. In the spirit of fairness, a candidate for student body president was given the opportunity to respond to my letter. He took a very different view, which I’ll link to below my own post. The fact that Crowder was given $15,000 still bothers me, and will probably keep me from ever donating to this school as an alumni.

The Cost of Free Speech

Nathan DeVera’s Response