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Campus Protests_One Christian School’s View

This Family Life News Feature sought informed perspectives on the demonstrations and protests — and in a few cases, violence and anti-Semitic hatred — on some college campuses across the nation.

Dr. Wayne Lewis is president of Houghton University, a Christian school in Houghton, New York. In this conversation, Lewis:

• talks about his reactions not only to the protests, but the various ways university administrators responded to the campus disruptions
• asks why mistreatment of Jewish students was allowed, at schools where harassments and threats against any other group would not be tolerated
• says academia needs more freedom of speech and freedom of thought, for its students and professors from all along the social and cultural spectra

President Lewis says the ways that some campus demonstrations got out of control so quickly was predictable, considering how the past few years have magnified a “cancel culture” where some groups and issues are honored and celebrated, while differing views were silenced. He says that — especially in higher education — all positions and pronouncements should be subject to equal amounts of rigorous evaluation and analysis.

(For the record, Dr. Lewis says protests like this did not happen on their Southern Tier campus. Houghton’s baccalaureate and commencement ceremonies will happen this weekend, as scheduled.)

Portions of Greg Gillispie’s special Family Life interview first aired in the Noon Report and 5 O’Clock Report on May 9, 2024.