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Arizona State University

From February 2023 to June 2023
Arizona State University (Public college or university)
Tempe, Az

Identity of Speakers

  • Ann Atkinson
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    Atkinson was the executive director of the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development at the Barrett Honors College

Resources

Additional Information

  • Incident Nature:
    Other
  • Incident Political Orientation:
    Right wing
  • Incident Responses:
    Other
  • Incident Status:
    No litigation
  • Did not involve Speech Codes

Summary

An Arizona State University administrator claimed that she was fired for bringing high-profile, right-wing speakers onto campus, though the University refuted this claim stating that she lost her job because the donor who created and funded the center funding the position decided to terminate his donation.

Ann Atkinson, executive director of the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development at the Barrett Honors College, made her claims in the Wall Street Journal.

 The featured speakers were Charlie Kirk, of Turning Point USA, and Dennis Prager, host of the online “Dennis Prager Show” and operator of Prager U.  The campus event drew protests from faculty at ASU’s Barrett Honors College.

Three dozen Barrett faculty members signed a letter to the honors college dean condemning the “Health, Wealth and Happiness” event that Atkinson organized.  The faculty letter described them as “purveyors of hate,” though the faculty did not call for the event’s cancellation.  The event went off without incident.