Stanford University refuses to fire an inclusion dean aroused for scolding a conservative judge at a recent law school event, despite students calling for her to reject it in a recent article written for the university newspaper .
Tirien Steinbach, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of California, hosted the ‘COVID, Guns and Twitter’ event at the Stanford Federalist Law Society last week, naming Trump appointee Kyle Duncan , as a speaker.
Ostensibly an opportunity to hear the views of one of the highest-ranking jurists in the country, the event soon turned into a smear campaign, with the dean of the DEI seizing the opportunity to engage in a six-minute rebuke of the official. court, due to his unfavorable views on same-sex marriage and trans and reproductive rights.
Liberal students in attendance would join the action: The law school’s top dean, Jenny Martinez, will issue a formal letter of apology to the federal judge for violations of university speech policies that disrupted her talk, what happened Thursday.
However, the school stopped short of reprimanding Steinbach for the episode, despite video showing her participating in the booing as Duncan pleaded with an administrator to calm down the crowd, and a recent article decrying the entire ordeal in The Stanford Review.
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An associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of California, Tirien Steinbach (seen left) held the ‘COVID, Guns and Twitter’ event at the Stanford Federalist Law Society on Thursday, calling on the judge appointed by Trump, Kyle Duncan (right) as speaker
Since then, Stanford has refused to fire the staff member; despite an article in the school newspaper over the weekend, the students demanded that Steinbach be fired.
The piece was written by Stanford students Thomas Adamo (left) and Josia Joner, right), and is not-so-subtly titled Fire Tirien Steinbach.
Instead, the dean took the podium with a notebook and her own prepared remarks, relentlessly lashing out at the unsuspecting appellate judge’s political beliefs.
“Your work has caused harm… and I know it must be uncomfortable to hear,” Steinbach says in a clip of the chaotic event currently circulating online.
In an obvious reference to that tirade on Tuesday, school staff admitted that “staff members who should have enforced university policies failed to do so” during the incident and “instead intervened in inappropriate ways that did not is aligned with the university’s commitment to freedom of expression’.
The statement did not specify any kind of punishment for school staff, despite growing calls for him to resign.
“We are writing to apologize for the interruption to his recent speech at Stanford Law School,” the statement said, without mentioning Steinbach by name. ‘As has already been communicated to our community, what happened was inconsistent with our policies on free speech.
“We are very sorry for the experience you had while visiting our campus.”
Aside from the apology, the statement did not address the growing backlash over the incident, amid a growing advent of free speech being sidelined on campuses across the country.
Such a reaction was seen in a recent article that appeared in the private school’s prestigious school newspaper over the weekend, written by several students who found the dean’s handling of the situation problematic.
In a statement over the weekend, Stanford apologized to the judge on Steinbach’s behalf, but did not mention the dean (pictured here) by name. she is still in her position
Judge Duncan, a jurist for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, was invited to speak by the dean of Stanford’s Federalist Law Society last week, but was instead interrupted by both the staff member and her students before she could speak. the US Marshals will escort her off the site.
Other than the apology, the statement did not address the growing backlash over the incident, including the aforementioned Stanford Review article.
“She has NO place as dean of Stanford,” said the students behind the not-so-subtly titled article, Fire Tirien Steinbach, about the inclusion officer, who began her tenure at the school in 2021, following stints as attorney and supervisor at the East Bay Community Law Center at Berkley and Berkeley Law School
The article was written by Stanford students Josia Joner, Thomas Adamo and Walker Stewart, and would mark Steinbach as the latest example of the advent of ‘anti-speech zealots’ shutting down speech at various universities.
Walker Stewart was also involved in writing the article, which recalls how students supported the dean in censuring the judge during last week’s widely viewed incident.
However, the article credited Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford Law School Dean Martinez for “properly” apologizing for the incident, but accused the employees for failing to address what they said was the cause. from the debacle – ‘Stanford Law School’s Own Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’.
“The Stanford Federalist Society event with Kyle Duncan, a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals judge, was interrupted by a mob of unruly law students and a Stanford DEI dean who prevented the judge from speaking,” it reads. in the opinion piece, recalling how the students supported the dean in censuring the judge during the incident.
‘When Judge Duncan tried to intervene, the students yelled, ‘let her finish!’ and Steinbach finished his speech with ease,’ the students recalled.
Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez properly apologized to Judge Duncan on Saturday, saying “what happened was inconsistent with our policies on free speech.” “.
“But at the center of the debacle was not the group of rebellious law students, but the associate dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Stanford Law School, Tirien Steinbach,” the article continues, recalling how Duncan had looked at the school. officer for help during the incident.
“However, Dean Steinbach came up to the podium with a notebook and prepared remarks, ready to criticize Duncan as well,” the three students recalled, writing how the Stanford administrator “actively encouraged students to go against the policy of freedom of expression of Stanford”.
Of the school’s apology, the students wrote that the gesture would be “meaningless” unless “concrete steps are taken to rid the administration of anti-speech zealots.”
Regarding the school’s promise to take steps to ensure that such an incident does not happen again, the students wrote that “it is it is not clear what Stanford plans to do to avoid such disruption in the future.’
As for a solution, the students wrote: ‘Firing Dean Steinbach is a good start.’
More action from the school remains to be seen. Judge Duncan has since acknowledged, and accepted, the university’s public apology.
