The article appeared in the May issue of the Carrollton Record, a conservative campus publication.
Penned by Hopkins senior Jered Ede, the piece detailed the use of student tuition money to pay for copies of the film “Deep Throat” and for a campus visit by gay porn director Chi Chi LaRue, who according to Ede, makes “dirty, nasty films.”
In the story, Ede related the administration’s response to his objections to LaRue being invited to campus at the financial expense of the school.
“When I expressed my concerns with school officials, I was met with an absolute statement by Assistant Dean of Student Life Ralph Johnson, who said, ‘No matter how morally repugnant the speech may be, we have to allow it,’” Ede wrote.
According to Ede, within a day of the paper’s publication, more than 1,800 copies of the paper were removed from libraries, dormitories and other locations on campus.
In an open letter to the campus, Ede accused the school administration of censorship and said that the removal of the papers amounted to “university-sponsored theft.”
While Ede and other conservative students chafe under what they see as selectively enforced restrictions on their right to free speech, other Hopkins students have exercised their own right to speak.
According to Ede, more than a few students responded to the article by writing to the paper to call them “fucking idiots.”