Censored at Weber State
On October 3rd, Let Utah Read and our chapter, Let Davis Read, were supposed to take part in a conference on censorship. “Redacted: Navigating the Complexities of Censorship” would have been Weber State University's 27th Unity Conference. At the last minute it was canceled due to censorship. That’s right: in a disturbingly ironic turn of events, the conference about censorship was, in fact, censored.
Two co-founders of Let Davis Read were scheduled to speak about their experiences fighting book bans in Davis County. However, three days before their presentation they received a letter from the school notifying them that due to HB 261, the law that did away with diversity groups on school campuses, presenters could not describe censorship as a one-party issue or describe it as a partisan strategy. Presenters could not use the words “diversity”, “equity”, or “inclusion”. Additionally, presenters had to submit their slides for review and possible revision.
This is clearly censorship.
As a group, we decided that in light of these decisions by the administration we could not participate in the conference. We are an organization devoted to free speech and the fight against censorship. We could not countenance being involved in an event that so blatantly violated our charter.
Many other speakers felt the same and pulled out. The organizers of the event were blindsided by the school’s demands and canceled the event after internal discussion. The co-chairs have also apparently resigned from the conference in protest.
But this is not the end of the story. Determined not to be swayed by the university’s dictates, the speakers gathered on that stormy Friday to speak in front of the library, where the conference was to have taken place. As rain poured down, the speakers gave their presentations, even though the university wouldn’t allow them to set up a canopy to protect them from the weather. Eventually, after a lightning strike nearby, speakers were instructed to take shelter inside, but were told they couldn’t continue to speak openly. When a participating professor reframed her free speech as a class instruction, the school administration reluctantly gave ground.
Weber University used HB 261 as the justification for their actions. This law, which was used to dismantle minority student associations and LGBTQ+ support groups on campus, does not officially touch academic speech. The university argued that because the funding for the conference came from a student success group and not an academic department, this allowed them to crack down on a conference held by academics for academics. Do not believe politicians when they say, “we will not touch academic speech” or “academics will not be influenced by this bill.” Censorship does not end at banning books in high schools; it is not satisfied with simply controlling what your kids read. It will continue its march until it tells professors what they can and cannot research, what they can and cannot teach.
For more information and to read the administration’s letter, see Richard Price’s Adventures in Censorship blog, specifically the posts from October 1st and 3rd.