Yale Law Dean Heather Gerken on Monday called the behavior of some Yale Law students who protested a controversial campus speaker “unacceptable,” marking her first public comments on the March 10 incident that spurred a wave of discussion about free speech at the elite school.
“This is an institution of higher learning, not a town square,” Gerken wrote in a message to students, faculty, and staff that underlined the school’s commitment to free speech. “[Yale Law School] is a professional school, and this is not how lawyers interact.”…
Gerken said the university maintains a three-warning protocol, and the 120 protesters who attended the March 10 panel left the room after the first warning. However, she said some students were “rude and insulting” to law school faculty and staff and some continued to be disruptive from outside the room where the panel occurred.
“I expect far more from our students, and I want to state unequivocally that this cannot happen again,” she wrote. “My administration will be in serious discussion with our students about our policies and norms for the rest of the semester.”
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