AHI Resident Fellow Mary Grabar criticized the planned censorship of programming of the Center for Political and Economic Thought at St. Vincent College by the college administration. In her article, “Catholic College Reacts Hysterically To Hillsdale Professor’s Presentation On ‘Racial Hysteria,’” published in the May 4, 2022, issue of The Federalist, she defended the presentation at this year’s post-Covid conference, themed “Panic, Policy, and Politics,” by Hillsdale government professor David Azerrad, “Black Privilege and Racial Hysteria in America,” which prompted the clamp-down.

Azerrad’s examples of double standards that threaten the American system of equality under the law and reward by merit were accurate and confirmed by events after the conference, she said. Recalling the 2015 conference that she participated in, she defended the independently funded program as one of the rare places where students can “hear views outside of the usual oppression and grievance studies fare” and where scholars can engage in open discussion with students and the public about “philosophical and policy concerns related to freedom and Western civilization.”