Right at the top of its official website, the University of New Mexico describes itself as “a community of unique perspectives embracing divergence,” but recent events have demonstrated that not all perspectives are considered equally valid. When conservative Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren arrived on campus to speak at an event, she was met by a violent mob of progressive protesters who attempted to shut down the speech before it could even begin.

A group calling itself “Political Fireball” began organizing to disrupt Lahren’s speech long before she arrived on campus, circulating a banner on social media which read “FUCK WHITE SUPREMACY — Rally Against Tomi Lahren’s Speech at UNM — We Won’t Allow Racist Rhetoric to be Spread on Our Campus Unopposed.” 

Then, as the event began, protesters broke into the auditorium screaming “F**k Tomi Lahren” and were beating on the door which had to be barricaded. They also pulled the fire alarm in an effort to end the speech. Lahren, along with her father and a representative from Turning Point USA, the conservative student group which had arranged Lahren’s visit, were then forced to shelter in a back room until local police could arrive.

Describing the incident, Lahren was highly critical of UNM’s failure to ensure that her speech could proceed safely.

“The university knew there was going to be a planned protest,” Lahren explained in an interview. “There was a banner going around social media for days, especially yesterday, leading up to the event.  They knew that it was going to be bad. They knew that Antifa was involved. They knew that it was going to be an organized protest against my speech. They did nothing.”

“We had a couple of campus PD officers. That was it. They did not call Albuquerque police. They didn’t call the New Mexico police. They were completely unprepared and quite frankly, didn’t care,” Lahren described. “Even after we were in the room, and these protesters that were let into the student union and were banging on the door trying to bust in the door to attack me and the speech goers — the university still did nothing.”

Some of the protesters proudly took to social media to showcase their success in shutting down Lahren’s speech. “We kicked @TomiLahren out of @UNM campus and it took less than an hour of disruption. It’s our duty to shut down white supremacist organizing every chance we get. Fuck Tomi Lauren. Fuck White Supremacy,” one individual tweeted.

An article covering the controversy in the Daily Lobo, the official student newspaper of UMN, focused not on the premature cancellation of the event, but on students’ objections to the fact that their heckler’s veto was criticized by the administration.

“I think UNM’s actions are unnecessary as the protest was not violent,” asserted one student who was quoted in the coverage. “I think it is unfortunate that university property was damaged, but I think it is more unfortunate that UNM allows a hateful group such as Turning Point to gather on campus and utilize university facilities to host an individual such as Tomi Lahren. Property can be fixed and replaced, the safety of students cannot, and UNM is letting their minority students know that their safety on campus is not valued.”  Other students complained to the campus paper that the police presence necessitated by their protest led them to feel “unsafe.”

UNM did release a statement asserting its commitment “to the principles of free speech” and claimed to be “deeply disappointed in the actions of those individuals who intentionally chose to disrupt a scheduled speaker.” The university also promised to conduct an investigation and “hold anyone who violated the law or University policies accountable.” Despite this promise, a search of the Daily Lobo did not reveal any disciplinary charges against the protesters who disrupted Lahren’s speech.

Allowing the disruption of Lahren’s speech is not UMN’s only misstep in protecting the rights of faculty and students. The university has repeatedly been sued by both students and faculty for allowing disciplinary hearings without adequate due process. In one recent instance, Joseph Caldwell, a student basketball player, was abruptly thrown off the team, prevented from registering for classes, and evicted from campus housing after he was accused—not convicted—of battery against another individual who was not even associated with UMN. In his lawsuit against the university, Caldwell alleges that he was denied a hearing where he could listen and challenge witnesses and evidence presented against him, in addition to the chance to appeal the campus’s verdict.

In another deeply concerning incident, UMN Professor Nick Flor was suspended for a year without pay after a 35-year-old graduate student made a false harassment report after he ended their relationship. Notably, Flor did not supervise the graduate student and was not her instructor. Nevertheless, UMN suspended the professor and after an independent investigator found consideration favorable to Flor, they replaced the initial investigator with an in-house Title IX official. For its failure to protect free expression on campus and its repeated violation of the due process rights of students and faculty, UMN deserves to be labeled one of the nation’s most fascist universities.