MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After a video of WVU students in a heated verbal argument and scuffle went viral, receiving national media attention, university leaders have addressed the issue in a statement.
One headline, on Fox’s website, read “Video shows leftist activist attacking conservative college students.”
The original reporting on The College Fix, which is written by and aimed at college students across the country from a conservative perspective, was headlined “Leftist student physically attacks conservatives after botched debate meeting.”
A social media post showed reported members of WVU Left Alliance and of the WVU chapter of Turning Point USA in a shouting match in the hallway of a campus building. One of the members of WVU Left Alliance becomes upset that a member of Turning Point USA is using a smartphone to record the events and tries to smack the phone away. “Why are you … filming us?” asks the member of WVU Left Alliance.
Here’s a link to the video. WARNING: It contains graphic language.
One of the students with Turning Point USA, Kaitlynn Critchfield, posted video of the encounter to Facebook and told The College Fix that the student with WVU Left Alliance pushed her into a wall and tried stealing her phone.
“A leftist/communist organization physically assaulted my friends and I for being conservative…AFTER we left the meeting peacefully and didn’t go back,” Critchfield wrote on Facebook. “We were chased after down the hall by this man then assaulted!”
A video that she posted prior to the scuffle showed a group of students sitting at a table in an academic room. This video is calmer but shows the student who is later in the scuffle suggesting that the students with Turning Point should leave the room. They object but then appear to comply with the request to go.
West Virginia University has issued the following statement:
“West Virginia University is aware of a video being widely distributed on social media and some news outlets of an altercation between two students with differing political points of view. University Police has investigated and neither party involved wishes to press charges. The report will be sent to Student Conduct, who will now investigate and take appropriate action.”
WVU Left Alliance is not included on a university webpage listing “Political Environmental and Special Concerns” related student organizations.
A university webpage for Turning Points USA notes the chapter’s purpose is to “educate and unite students about conservative ideas and smaller government involvement.”
The university statement continued with “West Virginia University continues to stand behind the right of its students, faculty and staff to express their ideas and points of view, but also remains adamant that it be done in a peaceful, civil and respectful manner.”
WVU was the subject of a broader controversy over free speech in December when student conservatives brought in guest speaker Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart. Yiannopolous received widespread criticism for singling out a WVU professor with a graphic assessment of his sexuality and weight.
Following that incident, university President Gordon Gee wrote to the campus saying that WVU had to let the talk take place as a matter of free speech. Gee also took up for the WVU professor who was the subject of Yiannopolous’s remarks.
“I will always support the decision to bring a speaker to campus and our community — no matter how controversial. We never want to censor a person’s right to free speech. It is through listening to people who think differently from others that we learn about the world and discover who we really are. And I believe that is one of the most valuable experiences one can have on a college campus,” Gee wrote then.
Support for free speech, Gee wrote, “does not mean I, as president, lose my First Amendment right to speak up and condemn what is presented. I will never support the tactics of any speaker who brings unsubstantiated and false attacks against a member of our Mountaineer family. It is one thing to share differing opinions that others may find offensive. It is another to be defamatory and target individuals. I personally condemn the tactic this speaker chose to vindictively attack one of our faculty members, Daniel Brewster.”
Yiannopolous on Thursday released his own video take on this week’s scuffle at WVU, with the title “WATCH: Neckbeard communists at West Virginia University assault conservatives for attending their meeting.”
Critchfield, on her Facebook page, was pleased Yiannopolous had noticed: “Milo picked up the story!” she wrote. “Big things are happening.”