Left-Wing Activists Threaten Oxford Students over Speaker Who Helped Expose Jason Arday

T he Reform Society student group at Oxford University recently announced that it would host an event at Oriel College in November titled “Is DEI Undermining Higher Education?” featuring Nathan Cofnas. Cofnas is the academic who exposed plagiarism allegedly committed by Jason Arday, who had been the University of Cambridge’s youngest-ever black professor.

Last summer, following Cofnas’s explosive article, media outlets began examining Arday’s life story and disproved many of the grandiose claims that he had made about his personal achievements. (For a lengthier summary of Arday’s academic misconduct and fictitious biography, see National Review’s reporting, which uncovered that Arday had falsely claimed to be a visiting professor at Ohio State University.)

Cambridge initially supported Arday, but it announced on August 5 that it would investigate the mounting accusations against him. Arday resigned from his position later that day, and he was found dead in his home on August 14.

Since then, Arday’s supporters have dedicated themselves to framing Cofnas as a villain. Hosting Cofnas for a talk on campus amounts to, according to unhinged activists, a “declaration of war.” Now, the Reform Society student organization, Oriel College, Oxford University, and Cofnas are facing intense pushback over the scheduled event.

Cofnas, who has written about IQ differences and disparate outcomes across racial groups, has been dubbed a “racist,” “nazi,” “monster,” “white supremacist,” “the man responsible for leading to Jason Arday to suicide,” and a “stochastic murderer” who initiated a “digital lynching.” The organization NewsCord launched an email campaign to demand that the Reform Society withdraw its invitation to Cofnas; NewsCord states that “Cofnas’s February 2024 essay predicts that Black representation on Harvard’s faculty would approach zero under his conception of meritocracy. He writes: ‘Blacks would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.’” (Of course, NewsCord neglects to mention that some of the evidence Cofnas cited came from an internal study done by Harvard itself.)

As of Thursday afternoon, nearly 5,000 emails had been sent to Oxford affiliates (including directly to students) on behalf of the campaign to try to shut down the event. The Good Law Project, a nonprofit organization that supported Arday as he faced plagiarism accusations and media scrutiny, launched an initiative titled “Stop the far right targeting Black people at universities” that cites the Cofnas event exclusively as a reason for individuals to email the U.K. education secretary to repeal “pro-hate speech legislation.”

Aside from the email campaign, individuals who are apparently unaffiliated with the university have tried to prevent an audience presence at the Cofnas talk by using burner accounts to register for the free tickets. Naturally, a protest has been scheduled; a poster advertising the demonstration states “far right off campus” and “white supremacist Nathan Cofnas not welcome in Oxford,” complete with “X” marks over his face. The student organization’s event has garnered so much attention that a member of Parliament, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, has weighed in. She asked on social media whether “Oxford University consider[s] pseudo-scientific ideas about race and IQ worthy of debate at its institution?” and “Will Oxford University state clearly that racism and racial harassment will not be tolerated?”

As of this writing, the Reform Society event is still scheduled to occur, and enhanced security measures have been put in place. The student group explained in a social media post that only individuals with tickets will be permitted to attend, there will be zero tolerance of disruptions, the names of attendees will be taken, and no recordings or photography will be allowed without prior permission. People have responded in the comments that “the terms and conditions sound an awful a lot like fascism” and, rather troublingly, “fascism is not to be debated, it is to be smashed.”

Indeed, there might have to be more advanced security efforts to ensure that the event can occur without disruptions or violence. There have been genuinely alarming statements that call for inflicting harm on Cofnas, attendees of the talk, and the college’s property. One individual on social media stated in relation to the event that it “should be the last talk he EVER gives. . . . You can’t reason with demons. They need to be sent back to hell.” Another person wrote that “Coffney” should be “hounded out of public life” and perhaps “shouldn’t even be breathing.” One poster encouraged breaking windows. Others have commented that “violence is the answer.” “An evening with Nathan Cofnas and a baseball bat,” one wrote in a riff on the event’s full title. One woman declared during a video, “chat sh**, get banged.”

Perhaps the most disturbing comment posted online was made by Onyeka Nwelue, a self-described “Award-winning Filmmaker & Author of 60+ books.” He wrote, “Imagine hiring a terrorist to this event to blow Cofnas’ head off! Imagine it! Don’t do it! Just imagine it!” Perhaps Nwelue has a personal incentive to prevent discussions about the extent to which DEI is corrupting education: He was previously an “Academic Visitor” at Oxford University from 2021 until 2023, but the university terminated his position after he misrepresented himself as a professor — an echo of how Jason Arday had falsely claimed to hold a Ohio State professorship, among other academic positions.

There is at least one slightly enjoyable aspect to the otherwise disturbing saga involving the Cofnas event. The Reform Society released a hilarious and genius statement defending Cofnas, written entirely in woke academese style:

OURS [Oxford University Reform Society] is committed to broadening participation in University life by removing systemic barriers for marginalised voices. By amplifying underrepresented perspectives, we can counter intersectional inequalities with inclusive dialogue.

Nathan Cofnas has been repeatedly victimised with stigmatising language and structural apartheid by those with institutional power and privilege. To meet our representation targets, OURS has cultivated a diverse talent pipeline designed to mitigate entrenched bias, promote epistemic diversity, and disrupt oppressive power structures. By allowing space for Cofnas’ lived experiences, representation at Oxford will finally be rebalanced.

We are aware that those with systemic advantage will try to resist the redistribution of campus space to underserved members of our community such as Cofnas. OURS is committed to resisting the performative victimhood of dominant groups seeking to manufacture their own marginalisation to continue to exclude Cofnas from University spaces.

Cofnas’s scheduled talk should be protected on academic freedom and free speech grounds.

If this event were being hosted outside of an academic context, Cofnas should still of course be allowed to voice his views. But because the event is scheduled to occur at a university, a newish British law might incentivize the Oxford University administrators to ensure that the event occurs without a hitch. Under the United Kingdom’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act of 2023, universities could face massive financial penalties for free-speech violations. As the U.K.’s Department for Education explained as recently as last year:

Under the strengthened rules . . . universities must actively promote academic freedom, ensuring campuses are places where robust discussion can take place without fear of censorship of students, staff or external speakers expressing lawful opinions. . . a new [Office for Students] complaints scheme will ensure academics, external speakers and staff can trigger investigations that could lead to fines if their free speech is not protected.

The serious threats against Cofnas, the Reform Society student organization, Oriel College, and Oxford University should alarm everyone — not just campus members who want to attend, or individuals who value free speech. But if the principle of academic freedom isn’t a compelling enough justification for Oxford to do everything possible to facilitate the event with Cofnas, perhaps the possibility of a several-hundred-thousand-pound fine will do the trick.