PHOENIX — An Arizona State University administrator claims she was fired for bringing high-profile, right-wing speakers onto campus.
Ann Atkinson, executive director of the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development at the Barrett Honors College, broke the news on a high-profile platform: the Wall Street Journal.
"ASU claims to value freedom of expression," Atkinson wrote in an opinion piece posted late Monday. "But in the end, the faculty mob always wins against institutional protections for free speech."
The university says that's not what happened.
The four-year-old program's funder, the T.W. Lewis Foundation, terminated the donation on June 30, according to an ASU spokesman.
Atkinson's job won't exist past that date, the spokesman said, but as a university employee, she is eligible for other jobs.
Atkinson, an ASU grad who has worked in commercial real estate and development for almost two decades, couldn't be reached for comment.
Here's what we know:
Roots in February protest
This is the latest skirmish between conservatives and what they view as a liberal university trying to silence people it disagrees with. In this case, a substantial donation is involved.
The controversy stems from a campus event in February that 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 at Gammage Auditorium.
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 faculty letter described them as "purveyors of hate."
"It was important for me to speak out on behalf of my most vulnerable and marginalized students," Professor Jenny Dyck Brian, faculty chair at Barrett, said in an interview Tuesday.
"I didn't have a problem with them speaking, but the event was being advertised in Barrett's name with Barrett's logo... We wanted to make it clear that we were not endorsing the event."
The faculty did not call for the event's cancellation.
No incidents at event
The event went off without incident.
Both Prager and Kirk were applauded when they slammed the faculty critics.
"They know nothing about what any of us stand for," Prager said.
Kirk praised ASU: "The university deserves credit for not cowing to the mob. That is important."
Kirk's organization targeted the three-dozen faculty members in its online "Professor Watchlist."
"The very existence of the watch list undermines any claims that Charlie Kirk wants to make about the importance of free speech because all we did was disagree with him," said Professor Jenny Dyck Brian, faculty chair at Barrett.
Started with $2.5 Million gift
Four years ago, the T.W. Lewis Foundation pledged $1.5 million for the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development at ASU's Tempe campus, plus $1 million toward the construction of a Student Success Center at the Barrett Honors College.
ASU confirmed that the foundation pledged $800,000 for the center in the first year and $400,000 a year afterward
The foundation was created by Tom Lewis, founder of the T.W. Lewis Company, a prominent builder of luxury homes.
The center's mission was to give students the tools to succeed in school and in life.
"Are you prepared for life after college? For its challenges, for its opportunities?" Atkinson said in an introductory video.
"If you are unsure of these answers, the Lewis Center can help."
Donor to conservatives
The T.W. Lewis Foundation has been a prolific donor to charitable causes throughout Arizona, as well as to conservative activists.
The foundation's publicly available tax returns for the 2020 and 2021 tax years show $225,000 in donations to Prager University and $50,000 to Turning Point.
Lewis told the Arizona Republic: "The long story short is that conservative viewpoints are not welcome at ASU. Or at most public universities in America."
In her op-ed, Atkinson cited the university's "deep hostility toward divergent views."
ASU gets 'green light' on speech
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a defender of free speech and academic rights on college campuses, gives ASU a positive "green light" rating for its protection of free speech.
In a tweet Wednesday, FIRE posted a statement from ASU and said it saw no free-speech problem with the closure.
"But, because schools often point to viewpoint-neutral reasons to justify viewpoint-based censorship, we’ll continue to monitor closely.," the organization said.
ASU provided this statement to 12News:
"Arizona State University remains committed to - in practice, not just rhetoric - all things that support free speech and all of its components. The event in question was held and was a success.
As a public university, ASU is committed to free, robust and uninhibited sharing of ideas among all members of the university's community.
The university values and adheres to the First Amendment to the U.S Constitution, which provides freedom of speech.
These values apply to the students and other members of our community who helped to organize the Lewis Center speaker program and to the faculty who expressed strong opinions about the event."
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