Millionaire benefactor withdraws $400,000 of ASU funds citing “hostility and left-wing activism”

A millionaire benefactor has decided to withdraw nearly half a million dollars in funding from Arizona State University, after the university fired a staff member who hosted two conservative talks, including one by Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager.

Scottsdale real estate mogul Tom Lewis has donated millions of dollars to Arizona State University over the past 20 years.

But Lewis withdrew his support in recent weeks over “hostility and activism from the left” as well as a visceral reaction to the February event with Kirk, Prager and author Robert Kiyosaki.

“After seeing this level of hostility and left-wing activism, I no longer trusted Barrett to adhere to the terms of our gift and have made the decision to terminate our agreement effective June 30, 2023,” Lewis wrote in a statement. . Press release.

“I regret that this decision was necessary, and I hope that Barrett and ASU take strong action to ensure that free speech is always protected and that all voices can be heard.”

Lewis withdrew his support in recent weeks over “hostility and left-wing activism” as well as a visceral reaction to the February event with Kirk, Prager and author Robert Kiyosaki.

Lewis issued his statement just weeks after the executive director of the TW Lewis Center for Personal Development, Ann Atkinson, was fired by ASU.

Lewis, who is the founder and CEO of TW Lewis Co., accused the school of targeting speakers for their conservative beliefs.

“Because these were mostly conservative speakers, we expected some opposition, but I was surprised and disappointed by the alarmingly open hostility shown by the Barrett faculty and administration toward these speakers,” Lewis said.

“Rather than sponsoring this event in a spirit of cooperation and respect for free speech, Barrett’s faculty and staff exposed the radical ideology that now seemingly dominates the university,” he added.

Formed in 2000 by Tom and Jan Lewis, the TW Lewis Foundation has awarded college scholarships to more than 200 future leaders.

The foundation has previously helped fund ASU’s TW Lewis Center for Personal Development, which is located at Barrett, The Honors College, at ASU.

In 2019, the TW Lewis Foundation pledged $1.5 million for the TW Lewis Center for Personal Development on ASU’s Tempe campus, as well as $1 million for construction of a Student Success Center at Barrett Honors College.

The center’s primary funder was Lewis, who pledged an annual gift of $400,000 following a first-year gift of $800,000 in 2017.

Lewis issued his statement just weeks after the executive director of the TW Lewis Center for Personal Development, Ann Atkinson, was fired by ASU.

The ASU administrator believes she was fired for bringing right-wing speakers to speak on the college campus.

After her firing, Atkinson released a public statement stating that the university was trying to silence her.

‘ASU claims to value freedom of expression. But in the end, the faculty crowd always wins against institutional protections for free speech,” Atkinson wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month, alleging that his firing was politically motivated.

The university responded with a statement denying those claims.

‘EM. Atkinson’s current job at the university will cease to exist after June 30 because the donor who created and funded the center decided to cancel his gift. Unfortunate, but unprecedented,” the university wrote in a June 20 news release.

‘EM. We share Atkinson’s frustration with those who would suppress free speech. But his conclusion that ASU students are the “losers” misses the obvious point: the “Health, Wealth and Happiness” event organized by Robert Kiyosaki, Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk was a success. Speakers came, spoke and more than 600 people attended,’ the university added.

The controversy initially arose from an event on the ASU campus in February that sparked protests from ASU’s Barrett Honors College faculty.

More than three dozen Barrett faculty members signed a petition to the dean of the honorary college condemning the ‘Health, Wealth and Happiness’ event that Atkinson organized.

The event featured speakers including Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager, founder of Prager U, whom the faculty described as “hate purveyors” in the letter.

Lewis pledged an annual gift of $400,000 following a first-year gift of $800,000 in 2017

The Arizona State University campus in Tempe hosted an event featuring speakers including Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager, founder of Prager U, whom faculty members protested, describing as “hate purveyors” in a letter.

“It was important to me to speak up for my most vulnerable and marginalized students,” Professor Jenny Dyck Brian, faculty chair at Barrett, said in an interview Tuesday with 12 News.

“I had no problem with them talking, but the event was being advertised in Barrett’s name with the Barrett logo… We wanted to make it clear that we don’t endorse the event,” he told 12 News.

The event went on as planned and there were no disturbances.

The free speech debate at academic institutions has heated up in recent years: In March, Stanford Law School made headlines after students rebuked Kyle Duncan, a Trump-appointed federal appeals judge, who had come to give a talk.

More than three-quarters of Princeton students said it was sometimes acceptable to stop a campus speaker by yelling at them, a recent poll revealed in June.

Some 43 percent said it was acceptable to prevent other students from attending talks they disagreed with.

Even more disturbing, 16 percent supported the use of violence to detain a controversial speaker, according to alumni group Princetonians for Free Speech.

In response to a separate question, 48 percent of the 250 students responded that speech that uses discriminatory language or that a group finds offensive should not be allowed.

Tirien Steinbach, the school’s dean of equity, diversity and inclusion, chimed in apparently to instill calm, before launching into an impassioned six-minute speech, which she had written, condemning her life’s work. She was charged with ambushing Duncan and was put on leave.