OLYMPIA, Wash. — A small college in Washington state closed abruptly Thursday in response to a threat following a recent series of protests that have drawn national attention to student allegations of racism on the progressive campus.
It comes as many defenders of the First Amendment say they see signs that free speech is losing ground as a priority at U.S. colleges and is being used as a political weapon to silence opposing viewpoints.
Law enforcement thought the threat via a 911 call was credible enough to forward to Evergreen State College in Olympia, and school officials decided to close the campus, Sandra Kaiser, Evergreen’s vice president for college relations, told reporters Thursday.
Kaiser did not know the source of the threat or whether it was tied to recent protests at the college, which asked everyone to leave or return to residence halls for further instructions.
Officers were “visible and present” on campus Thursday, and school officials were waiting to hear from law enforcement when they “can give the all clear,” Kaiser said. She hoped classes would resume Friday.
It follows protests over a white professor opposing an April event in which organizers asked white students to leave campus to talk about race issues. It’s a reversal from the longstanding annual “Day of Absence,” in which minorities traditionally attend programs off campus.
Biology professor Bret Weinstein, who has taught at Evergreen for 15 years, wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal saying he was called a racist because he had “challenged coercive segregation by race.”
