Stanford University is refusing to fire a woke inclusivity dean for scolding a conservative judge at a recent law school event – despite students calling for her nixing in a recent piece penned for the college newspaper.
An associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the California university, Tirien Steinbach held the ‘COVID, Guns and Twitter‘ event at Stanford Law’s Federalist Society last week, tabbing Trump-appointed Kyle Duncan as a speaker.
Seemingly a chance to hear the views of one of the highest-ranking jurists in the country, the event soon descended into a smear campaign – with the DEI dean using the opportunity to engage in a six-minute scolding of the judicial officer, due to his unfavorable opinions on same sex marriage, and trans and reproductive rights.
Liberal students in attendance would join in on the action – leading law school dean Jenny Martinez to issue a formal letter of apology to the federal judge for violations of university policies on speech that disrupted his talk, which happened Thursday.
The school, however, stopped short of reprimanding Steinbach for the episode, despite video showing her participating the heckling as Duncan pleaded for an administrator to calm the crowd – and a recent article decrying the entire ordeal in The Stanford Review.
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An associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the California university, Tirien Steinbach (seen at left) held the ‘COVID, Guns and Twitter ‘ event at Stanford Law’s Federalist Society on Thursday, and tabbed Trump-appointed judge Kyle Duncan (at right) as a speaker
Stanford has since refused to fire the staffer – despite piece published by the school newspaper over the weekend, students demanded Steinbach be fired
The piece was penned Stanford students Thomas Adamo (left) and Josia Joner Right), and is not-so-subtly titled Fire Tirien Steinbach
Instead, the dean took to the podium with a notebook and her owned prepared remarks, in which she relentlessly tore into the unsuspecting appellate judge’s political beliefs.
‘Your work has caused harm… and I know that must be uncomfortable to hear,’ Steinbach says in a clip of the chaotic event currently circulating online.
In an obvious reference to that rant Tuesday, school staffers conceded ‘staff members who should have enforced university policies failed to do so’ during the incident, and ‘instead intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech.’
The statement did not specify any sort of punishment for the school staffer – despite mounting calls for her to hand in her resignation.
‘We write to apologize for the disruption of your recent speech at Stanford Law School,’ the statement, which did not mention Steinbach by name, read. ‘As has already been communicated to our community, what happened was inconsistent with our policies on free speech.
‘We are very sorry about the experience you had while visiting our campus.’
Apart from apology, the statement failed to address burgeoning backlash over the incident, amid an increasing advent of free speech being thrown to the wayside on campuses across the country.
Such backlash was seen in a recent piece that appeared in the private school’s prestigious school paper over the weekend, penned by several students who found the dean’s handling of the situation problematic.
In a statement over the weekend, Stanford apologized to the judge on the Steinbach’s behalf but did not mention the dean (pictured here) by name. She remains in her position
A jurist with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Duncan was invited to speak by the dean at the Stanford Law’s Federalist Society last week, but was instead heckled by both the staffer and her students before being escorted off-site by US Marshals
Apart from apology, the statement failed to address burgeoning backlash over the incident – including the aforementioned Stanford Review piece
‘She has NO place as a Stanford dean,’ students behind the not-so-subtly titled piece, Fire Tirien Steinbach, said of the inclusivity official, who started her tenure at the school in 2021, following stints as a lawyer and supervisor at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkley and Berkeley Law School
The piece was penned by Stanford students Josia Joner, Thomas Adamo, and Walker Stewart, and would brand Steinbach as only the most recent example of the advent of ‘anti-speech zealots’ shutting down discourse at various universities.
Walker Stewart also took part in penning the piece, which recalled how students rallied behind the dean in censoring the judge during last week’s widely seen incident
The piece, however, did give credit to Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford Law School Dean Martinez for ‘rightly’ apologizing for the incident, but went on staffers for not addressing what they said was the cause of the debacle – ‘Stanford Law School’s own Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.’
‘The Stanford Federalist Society’s event with Kyle Duncan, a judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, was disrupted by a mob of unruly law students and a Stanford DEI Dean who prevented the judge from speaking,’ the op-ed reads, recalling how students rallied behind the dean in censoring the judge during the incident.
‘When Judge Duncan tried to interject, the students shouted, ‘let her finish!’ and Steinbach finished her speech with ease,’ the students recalled.
‘Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez rightly apologized to Judge Duncan on Saturday, stating that “what happened was inconsistent with our policies on free speech.”’
‘But at the center of the debacle was not the group of unruly law students, but Stanford Law School’s own Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tirien Steinbach,’ the piece goes on to insist, recalling how Duncan had looked to the school official for help during the incident.
‘However, Dean Steinbach took the podium with a notebook and prepared remarks, ready to slam Duncan as well,’ the three students recollected, writing how the Stanford administrator ‘actively encouraged students to go against Stanford’s free speech policy.’
Of the school’s apology, the students wrote the gesture would prove ‘meaningless’ unless ‘concrete actions are taken to rid the administration of anti-speech zealots.’
In regards to the school’s vow take steps to ensure such an incident does not happen again, the students wrote that ‘it is unclear what Stanford plans to do to prevent such disruption in the future.’
As for a solution, the students wrote: ‘Firing Dean Steinbach is a good start.’
Judge Duncan has since acknowledged – and accepted – the university’s public apology.
In an interview with Rod Dreher that he published on Substack, Duncan called the incident an embarrassment, saying it made him fear for the future of the country.
After electing to not fire the dean, Stanford is now advising students to seek support from her, emails sent by Acting Associate Dean of Students Jeanne Miro show
‘This is one of the best law schools in the world. The students are the cream of the crop. The future judges, senators, presidents, leaders of industry.
‘And yet here is a mob of the best and brightest, shouting down a federal judge who’s been invited to campus, and thereby demonstrating that they don’t have the foggiest grasp of the basic concept of legal discourse: you have to meet reason with reason. Instead, their operating principle is: If I don’t like what you say or think, I will silence you.
‘Unless those students undergo a radical change in their whole approach to argument and disagreement, they are unfit to be members of any bar.’
He added that he sympathized with the other students who had gathered to hear him speak, but who missed out on the chance.
‘The attack was intimately personal and, frankly, disgusting. If I talked to a dog the way those students talked to me, I’d feel ashamed.’
He added that the entire ‘sorry episode’ was like the ‘therapy session from hell’ .
Meanwhile, after electing to not fire the dean, it appears Stanford is now advising students to seek support from her, emails sent by Acting Associate Dean of Students Jeanne Miro appear to show.
Currently circulating on Twitter, one message sent to students readsL ‘There is must to process about Thursday’s event and its aftermath, but the focus of this email is to provide you with resources that you can use right now to support your safety and mental health.’
The acting dean added: ‘I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this difficulty at all. Please reach out to any of us here at SLS if you would like support or if you would like to process last week’s events.’
Further action from the school remains to be seen.
