Albion College, a liberal arts school a half hour from Hillsdale College’s campus, made a list of 2018’s 10 worst colleges for free speech this week.
On Monday, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released a list of public and private institutions that infringed on students’ First Amendment rights over the past year. Albion College in Albion, Michigan, made the list because of an ongoing investigation into a student email.
In September, Alex Tokie, a sophomore at Albion, emailed his fellow College Republicans about discussing white privilege with the following conclusion, according to FIRE: “Take the liberal tears from the idiot you just destroyed in your debate, dissemble your American made Springfield M1911 .45 caliber handgun and apply the tears in order to clean the mechanism, reassemble and proceed to purchase ANTIFA and ISIS hunting permits and max out on tags.”
The sentence was a joke, Tokie told The Collegian.
“Anyone who knows me will say that’s just me being a wise guy,” he said.
Days after the email, the college’s administration began investigating Tokie, a process that began in September and still hasn’t finished, Tokie said.
Albion Director of Media Relations Chuck Carlson declined to comment on the college’s inclusion in the list.
“Seeing as it’s still a student privacy issue,” Carlson said, “we really don’t have any comment on it.”
FIRE has been compiling its list of the top 10 worst colleges for free speech since 2011. Last year, another Michigan school, Northern Michigan University, made the list for emails from the administration warning students not to discuss self-harm with others on social media, threatening disciplinary action.
Program Associate for FIRE’s Individual Rights Defense Program Sarah McLaughlin said Albion is one of many colleges guilty of suppressing free speech.
“Last year, FIRE received over 900 requests for help from students and faculty members who believed their rights were being violated on campus,” McLaughlin said in an email. “Focusing attention on the 10 worst offenders each year helps shine a light on how egregious and widespread the problem of campus censorship is.”
Senior Brendan Noble, the president of Young Americans for Liberty on campus, said Tokie’s statements were immature at best, but the investigation was uncalled for.
“People have the right to make immature and unpopular statements, and it is quite obvious there is no actual threat of violence in this statement. Just as important, though, is the fact Albion has left this student hanging for six months with no resolution to the situation,” Noble said. “That is no way to handle a situation like this. The beautiful thing about free speech is if you say something stupid, you are protected from government backlash, not social backlash.”
Tokie said he spoke with students on his campus who were offended by the email to make amends.
“I had discussions with individuals who were offended by the document, and we sorted out our differences,” Tokie said. “I’m good friends with those people now.”
Tokie said he’ll speak with the dean of students tomorrow to discuss the outcome of the investigation.
“What happened, me sending the email to so many people, it was a stupid mistake,” Tokie said. “It could easily have been avoided, but with that being said, I think Albion College needs to understand what it means to be a liberal arts school. And that means accepting every opinion, taking them seriously, and having meaningful discourse about those opinions.”
