Trinity College seeks 'Campus Reform Early Responder' to 'monitor' 'attacks' on profs

Trinity College in Connecticut is seeking “early responder” students to “monitor” Campus Reform “attacks” on professors. 

Trinity College wants to hire a “Campus Reform Early Responder” as part of its Summer Research Program. Faculty at the college are advised to submit proposals that, once approved, will be included on the list of projects, posted on the college’s website. 

Currently, the list only contains one “research project” open to prospective student researchers. 

[RELATED: Donors, students ditch Trinity after ‘Campus Reform incident’]

The project description states that “Campus Reform is a an [sic] online website that hires students to write ‘news stories’ about perceived liberal outrages that occur on their college campuses. In reality, this outfit is funded by dark money and organized by right-wing partisan activists, with the ultimate goal of policing and regulating campus speech.” 

The description continues by stating that “Campus Reform originates many of the ‘news stories’ that spark attacks on college faculty (such as the attack on Professor Williams in 2017). This summer project seeks to daily monitor the postings on Campus Reform, collect data about the kinds of ‘stories’ they publish, as well as develop ‘early responder’ tools that can be sent to faculty being targeted by Campus Reform, as well as to others positioned to respond to the fallout from these stories.”

Campus Reform reported on Trinity Professor Johnny Eric Williams in 2017 after he promoted an article titled “Let them fucking die,” referring to the Republican lawmakers who were affected by the Congressional baseball shooting that year. In a social media post of his own, Williams referred to white people as “inhuman assholes” and in 2019,  he tweeted that “whiteness is terrorism.”

Following the 2017 incident, Trinity College said that, as a result, it lost nearly $200,000 in donations. 

Trinity College responded to Campus Reform’s story in 2017 about Williams, which it calls an “attack,” by placing the professor on leave. Williams is currently listed on Trinity’s website as a professor of sociology. 

[RELATED: Prof with history of anti-white comments now says ‘whiteness is terrorism’]

“If you see them drowning. If you see them in a burning building. If they are bleeding out in an emergency room. If the ground is crumbling beneath them. If they are in a park and they turn their weapons on each other: do nothing,” the article stated. 

“Least of all put your life on the line for theirs, and do not dare think doing so, putting your life on the line for theirs, gives you reason to feel celestial. Save the life of those that would kill you is the opposite of virtuous. Let. Them. Fucking. Die. And smile a bit when you do,” it added.

The next part of the Trinity research project description is aimed at prospective “Student Researchers,” for which Associate Professor of Political Science Isaac Kamola is seeking to hire.

”I am looking for one student to monitor the Camps [sic] Reform website, collect and analyze data from the website, develop and maintain a website and social media tools designed to respond to these attacks, as well as help write public pieces for outlets like Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education,” the post reads. 

In July 2017, Kamola wrote a piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education calling Campus Reform’s story on Williams a “hit piece,” even though the article simply pointed out the article that Williams shared and quoted it, as well as quoted some of the professor’s own social media posts. 

Kamola then suggested that “Williams’s controversial posts are contributions to an academic conversation — a conversation that holds value even if it makes us feel uncomfortable, challenges our preconceptions, or questions things we hold dear.” Kamola concluded the post by expressing gratitude toward Williams, with whom he says he is “more inclined than ever to agree.” 

Kamola then suggested that Williams only suggested that white supremacy should “die,” not individual white people.

”It is this structure of racialized supremacy that Williams has suggested we ‘let die.’ I’m more inclined than ever to agree with him,” he wrote. 

However, the post that Williams shared clearly advocates for letting individual white people “die” if they are what the writer considers to be a “bigot.”  The writer strongly suggests that Republican House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, who was shot during the 2017 congressional baseball shooting, falls into this camp. 

Campus Reform reached out multiple times to both Kamola and Trinity College for more information on the position but did not hear back in time for publication. 

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