Stanford puts DEI dean on leave, makes students take 'mandatory educational programming'

Stanford University Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tirien Steinbach is due to be put on leave after she interrupted a speaking engagement with conservative US Circuit Judge, Kyle Duncan. 

The event titled “Guns, Covid and Twitter” was hosted by the Stanford Federalist Society. 

The law school’s dean, Jennifer Martinez, released a letter on Wednesday stating that students would not be disciplined for their role in the disruption because of the mixed signals sent by administrators. 

[RELATED: Stanford admins hijack US judge’s speech, tell students to keep quiet about it]

Instead, students will have to enroll in “mandatory educational programming” on freedom of speech. The university will require the entire student body to attend a half-day session that will feature “speakers representing a range of viewpoints”. 

Dean Martinez and Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne publicly apologized to Judge Duncan for Steinbach and the disrupting students. 

They wrote, “Freedom of speech is a bedrock principle for the law school, the university, and a democratic society, and we can and must do better to ensure that it continues even in polarized times.” Students demanded that Martinez retract the apology and reacted by staging a protest in her classroom. 

[RELATED: Stanford students call for DEI dean to be ‘fired’ for disrupting judge’s speech]

Dean Martinez ends her letter by saying “I recognize that the course I have chosen will not please everyone, not least of which those who have demanded that I retract my apology to Judge Duncan and those who have demanded that students be immediately expelled,” she continues. 

Campus Reform contacted the University of Stanford and all parties mentioned. This article will be updated accordingly. Best efforts were made to contact Judge Duncan.

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