The Providence Journal news blog covered our criticism of the ACORN event. Here is the complete post:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University’s invitation for Wade Rathke, co-founder of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, to speak at Brown next Tuesday has prompted criticism from a group whose mission includes the “restoration . . . of academic integrity.”

Stephen Beale, president of the nonprofit Foundation for Intellectual Diversity, a Brown alumni organization, on Tuesday described ACORN as “a disgraced and discredited organization” and said the selection of Rathke “raises eyebrows.”

“Once again, Brown is living up to its reputation as an isolated outpost of left-wing political activism, no matter how deplorable and scandalous,” Beale said.

ACORN has drawn fire from conservatives after a sting by conservative activists who caught ACORN employees in several cities on camera, seeming to give housing advice to a couple who claimed to be involved in prostitution.

Republicans also charged the year before that employees of ACORN falsified voter registrations in Florida.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, set off a firestorm of conservative criticism last fall as one of a handful of senators who opposed action to shut off federal housing funds to ACORN. At the time, he argued that allegations against a few employees do not justify a blanket sanction of the organization.

Rathke served as ACORN’s lead organizer from its founding in 1970 until he stepped down last June, according to Brown University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions.

The former ACORN official will deliver a speech entitled, “Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign to Save Working Families,” as part of the center’s Brown Bag Series scheduled for noon next Tuesday at 67 George St.

One of the co-founders of ACORN is coming to speak at Brown, according to The Providence Journal. After several employees were caught on tape giving advice on how to pay taxes and secure housing for a prostitution ring, most people on the Left, including President Obama, did the common sense thing and distanced themselves from the organization. But not Brown. Once again, the University has no shame when it comes to embracing left-wing activism. Below is our press release on the event:

Alumni Group Criticizes ACORN Speaker at Brown U.

PROVIDENCE, RI – The Foundation for Intellectual Diversity today criticized plans to have ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke speak at the Brown University.

“Having the former leader of such a disgraced and discredited organization speak on campus certainly raises eyebrows,” said Stephen Beale, President of The Foundation for Intellectual Diversity, a Brown alumni organization.

“After several ACORN employees were caught on tape offering tax and housing advice to individuals posing as leaders of an underage prostitution ring, most Democrats, including President Obama, felt they could no longer be associated with such an organization—but apparently not Brown University,” Beale said. “Once again, Brown is living up to its reputation as an isolated outpost of left-wing political activism, no matter how deplorable and scandalous.”

See if this sounds familiar, from the New York Daily News earlier this week:

“At Princeton, she was to be the guest of a pro-Israel student group. But then, according to published reports, Muslim students took offense at her presence, a campus imam interceded with a campus rabbi and a leader of the sponsoring organization suddenly thought better of hosting the talk. He apologized for inviting someone such as Darwish and begged pardon for having done a poor job of researching her views.”

Yes, once again, Nonie Darwish has been uninvited to speaking engagements at Ivy League universities – this time Princeton and Columbia. (The latter of which was, of course, happy to serve as a platform for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.)

What, incidentally, are Darwish’s extremely controversial views? She believes Islamic countries oppress women and indoctrinate their children with hatred for outsiders. As a result, she renounced her faith, and wrote a book entitled: “Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror.”

If this story sounds familiar, it is because virtually the same events happened at Brown in 2007. Darwish was scheduled to speak, having been invited by Brown Hillel. After protests by various student groups, primarily the Muslim Student Association, Hillel decided to withdraw funding, effectively uninviting her. Unlike Princeton and Columbia, however, Brown’s administration interceded:

“Russell Carey ‘91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services, said his office decided to sponsor the event after it was clear the speech would not go forward otherwise. ‘The whole purpose of a university is to have free and open exchange of ideas, particularly those that students initiate and develop,’ Carey said.”

Yes, from time to time, Brown gets it spot-on right. Darwish’s speech had its share of rhetorical fireworks, and not everyone in the audience took it well. However, there were many excellent, polite, and considered questions (especially, I should note, from the members of Brown’s Muslim Student’s Association). Everyone in attendance carried away a lot to think about. And no one, certainly, was worse for it.

Students, believe it or not, can handle difficult ideas. This is, after all, the virtue of intellectual diversity. Darwish has interesting and insightful ideas, even if they are controversial in some circles; Columbia and Princeton would do well to reconsider.