Stanford DEI Dean Escalates Battle against Law-School Dean

By Ed Whelan

Thursday, March 23, 2023

 

In a remarkable op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Stanford law school DEI dean Tirien Steinbach escalates her battle with law school dean Jenny Martinez. Steinbach had already given Martinez ample cause to fire her. It’s difficult to see how Martinez could avoid doing so now.

 

Before we look at the particulars of Steinbach’s op-ed, let’s briefly sum up the context in which she wrote it:

 

Two weeks ago, when Stanford law students disrupted Judge Kyle Duncan’s speech at a Federalist Society event, Steinbach seized the occasion to deliver six minutes of prepared remarks in which she chastised Judge Duncan. Two days later, Stanford’s president and Dean Martinez issued a joint letter of apology to Judge Duncan for the disruption of his event in violation of Stanford’s policies on free speech. In an obvious reference to Steinbach, the joint apology observed that “staff members who should have enforced university policies failed to do so, and instead intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech.”

 

Just yesterday, Dean Martinez followed up with a long letter to Stanford students that reiterated that the disruption of the event violated Stanford’s policies. In her letter, Martinez revealed that she had placed Steinbach on leave. In explaining university policy, Martinez pointedly observed:

 

[W]hen a disruption occurs and the speaker asks for an administrator to help restore order, the administrator who responds should not insert themselves into debate with their own criticism of the speaker’s views and the suggestion that the speaker reconsider whether what they plan to say is worth saying, for that imposes the kind of institutional orthodoxy and coercion that the policy on Academic Freedom precludes. For that reason, I stand by my statement in the apology letter that at the event on March 9, “staff members who should have enforced university policies failed to do so, and instead intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech.”

 

Now let’s look at Steinbach’s op-ed:

 

Steinbach never recognizes or acknowledges that the disruption of Judge Duncan’s event violated Stanford policy. Indeed, she never acknowledges that any disruption occurred. She instead says that there was merely a “heated exchange,” “a verbal sparring match,” in which “[s]ome protesters heckled the judge and peppered him with questions and comments” and Judge Duncan “answered in turn.” That is a gross distortion of what occurred and in direct conflict with Martinez’s apology and letter.

 

Steinbach never acknowledges or apologizes for her own gross misconduct. On the contrary, she defends her conduct in terms that directly conflict with Martinez’s criticism of her: She aimed “to give voice to the [protesting] students.” She “wanted Judge Duncan to understand why some students were protesting his presence on campus” so that he could ponder “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” So much for Martinez’s admonition that administrators “should not insert themselves into debate with their own criticism of the speaker’s views and the suggestion that the speaker reconsider whether what they plan to say is worth saying.”

 

Steinbach fundamentally disagrees with Dean Martinez (and with Stanford’s president) on the role of freedom of speech and on the relationship between free speech and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (or DEI). In her apology to Judge Duncan, Martinez stated: “Freedom of speech is a bedrock principle for the law school, the university, and a democratic society.” In her letter yesterday, Martinez explained that “the commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion means that we must protect free expression of all views.” As her question “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” indicates, Steinbach instead sees a need to “strike a balance” between values of freedom of speech and DEI that are often in conflict.

 

Steinbach’s op-ed is titled “Diversity and Free Speech Can Coexist at Stanford.” But Martinez and Steinbach have very different ideas of what such co-existence involves. It is difficult to see how Martinez and Steinbach can co-exist at Stanford. It’s time for Martinez to realize that Steinbach’s juice isn’t worth the squeeze.