Does the Chair of the English Dept. believe in the First Amendment?

Uploaded on May 3, 2009

Video of the discussion with the Chair after he threatened a student.

NJO: Video and caption from YouTube channel RUCenturion.

James' summation of the incident makes up the first two paragraphs of an article titled "The New McCarthyism" in the March 2005 issue of the Centurion and goes as follows:

“You have no first amendment rights,” said Richard Dienst, Director of the Rutgers Undergraduate English Program, to Rutgers College Republican Darren Cimillo, when he dared to challenge Duke University guest speaker Susan Willis on March 8th, 2005. Willis “consider[ed] the history of the Ku Klux Klan and its relationship to current U.S. foreign policy.” Richard Dienst and English Department Chair Richard Miller called the police and physically chased Darren out of Murray Hall and onto College Avenue. A police report confirms this.

     On March 10th , Justine Mertz and I confronted Mr. Dienst with a video camera and asked him a) why the English department’s procured student fees are sponsoring a highly politicized event with no relation to the subject of English Composition and b) why he doesn’t believe in the United States Constitution. He told us to take it to “judicial affairs.” The video can be viewed at www.rucenturion.com.