The aggressive cancellation campaign against Ilya Shapiro continues. On Monday, Georgetown Law dean William Treanor announced that Shapiro would be put on administrative leave from his new post at the law school’s Center for the Constitution, pending an investigation into a series of tweets that Shapiro posted on January 26 criticizing the use of racial preferences in Supreme Court nominations.
But student activists were unsatisfied. On the heels of a Georgetown Black Law Student Association petition calling for Shapiro’s termination, a message went out last night announcing that “a coalition of Georgetown Law Students will gather for a sit-in calling for the immediate termination of Ilya Shapiro and for the administration to address BLSA demands”:
When I showed up at the Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) library this morning to report on the sit-in, I was denied access by school security. But I caught the second half of a livestream of the event, broadcast via BLSA’s Instagram page. Dean Treanor himself was front-and-center, accompanied by Mitch Bailin, GULC’s associate vice president and dean of students; Sheila Foster, the associate dean for equity and inclusion; and Amy Uelmen, the director of the school’s “Mission & Ministry” program.
A chastened-looking Treanor spent more than an hour answering questions from what appeared to be the BLSA leadership team in a closed auditorium. The dean, striking an apologetic tone, echoed the language of the activists in the crowd, assuring the assembled students that he was “appalled” by the “painful” nature of Shapiro’s tweets and promising to “listen,” “learn” and ultimately “do better.” But he also seemed to be attempting to appease the students without committing to any definitive disciplinary action for Shapiro. “Since we’re a private institution, the First Amendment doesn’t apply to us,” he said. “It’s not the First Amendment that’s the university’s guideline.” But “on the other hand, the university does have a free speech and expression policy which binds us.”
The crowd was skeptical, directly criticizing Treanor’s messaging as “dishonest” and pushing for more aggressive action against Shapiro. One student floated the idea of defunding the Center for the Constitution “if, worst-case scenario,” Shapiro “were allowed to remain,” suggesting that Shapiro’s tweets can’t “be divorced” from the Center: “If Shapiro is there, then his ideas and his rhetoric will be the Center,” she insisted. Another pressed Treanor on why the Center existed at all, given the originalist views of its director, Randy Barnett. “Why was it created?” she asked. “Because so far it seems like it has done more harm than good.”
“You can do as much diversity training as you want with staff,” she continued. “But I feel like that Center has a certain ideology . . . so I really want you to defend why we really need it, beyond, like, you know, free speech, and beyond diversity of opinion. I really want us to think critically about why we still need it.”
Treanor said he thinks the Center is “important,” but quickly added that he wanted to “draw a line between conservatism and things that are racist.”
At another juncture, a student demanded that the dean cover for the classes that the activists had missed as a result of the sit-in, suggesting that the move should be part of a “reparations” package for black students. She followed up by insisting that students be given a designated place on campus to cry. “Is there an office they can go to?” she asked. “I don’t know what it would look like, but if they want to cry, if they need to break down, where can they go? Because we’re at a point where students are coming out of class to go to the bathroom to cry.”
“And this is not in the future,” she added. “This is today.”
The administrators took the law student’s query seriously. “It is really, really hard to walk out of class or a meeting in tears, and you should always have a place on campus where you can go,” Dean Bailin told her. “And if you’re finding that you’re not getting the person that you want to talk to or not getting the space that you need, reach out to me anytime — anytime — and we will find you space.”
Yet another student pressed the deans to send out an email attacking BLSA’s critics. “Something that’s important is to remind our classmates that are attacking us that they are only here because our ancestors were sold for them to be here,” she said. “And I think it’s a very important fact that is not talked about explicitly enough, because we are still being attacked. So I just would appreciate in whatever message that’s going out [to the student body], that our classmates are explicitly reminded: Do not attack the people who were sold for you to have this opportunity . . . That needs to be something that these people are reminded of, because they continue to attack us as if it is not on our backs that they are even here.”
Treanor maintained a deferential tone. “Again, I was appalled to see the tweet,” he said. “I tried to move as quickly as I can . . . within hours of the tweet going out, I made my statement.” Later, he reiterated that he was “so appalled by the tweets and this is painful for all of us but I know how painful and awful it is for you, and I know what a terrible burden it is,” adding that “I’m grateful for you taking the time to talk, I’m grateful for your insights, I heard a lot today that I won’t just be reflecting on but that I’ll be moving forward with, and I will be in dialogue with you about what we’re doing.”
“What I hear today is that you lost our trust as an institution,” Dean Foster chimed in. “And we get that. And we take that. And we take accountability. And we have to take accountability.” There were murmurs of agreement in the audience. “As Dean Foster said, we’ve lost your trust, and we’re hoping to work to get it back,” Treanor added. “The great thing about listening to these comments – which are really helpful – is that I learn about things that I could do better.”
Students remained unconvinced. “A lot of eyes are on you right now,” one said.
“That’s very powerful,” Treanor responded.
Editor’s note: This post has been amended since its original publication.