Minnesota is famous for being…well, cold.

Of course, as has been confirmed on this site many times in the past, Minnesotans are wusses about the weather – North Dakota is colder, and windier to boot. 

But that’s not the chill I’m talking about, this time.

No, it’s free speech that’s freezing on Minnesota’s college campuses.  The Young Americas Foundation (YAF) has compiled its annual Top Ten Abuses for the past year – and two of them take place within a mile of each other, at Saint Paul’s two up-market Catholic schools.

And the scary part is, the story doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Saint Thomas comes in at #2:

2. Transgendered activists in, pro-life speakers out. Liberal administrators at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic institution in Minnesota, censored the appearance of prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker because campus officials felt “uncomfortable” and “disturbed” by previous conservative speakers at the school. The University’s mission statement claims it values “the pursuit of truth,” “diversity,” and “meaningful dialogue.” Except, not really—or better yet, as long as the said “pursuit” doesn’t offend leftist predilections. Meanwhile, within the past year, the same school hosted Al Franken, the bombastic liberal comedian, and Debra Davis, a transgendered activist who believes God is a black lesbian. Realizing they had a public relations disaster on their hands, the head honchos at St. Thomas eventually reversed the ban on Star Parker.

Since it’s a “Worst of 2008” award, the YAF necessarily omits the larger historical context of oppression at St. Thomas during the reign of the school’s president, Father Dennis “Havana Denny” Dease. 

Father Dease has blazed a frozen trail during his tour at St. Thomas – from forbidding students to assist Cuban baseball player Manuel Chaoui’s bid for freedom when he defected to the US on a trip to play the Tommies, to actively attacking the students that booked an appearance by Ann Coulter, to turning a blind eye to the vandalism directed against the campus’ conservative student newspaper.  Some considered his (brief) banning for Bishop Desmond Tutu from campus a sign that he was an equal-opportunity oppressor; leaving aside the imbalance of the campus’ oppression, it’s fair to say that chilling one side’s freedom of speech chills everyone‘s.  Even if they don’t know it yet.

St. Thomas sits on the east bank of the Mississippi River gorge at the intersection of East River Road and Summit Avenue is one of the most beautiful campuses in the country – unless you’re a conservative activist; for them, the campus is a windswept ideological gulag, as cold, barren and oppressive as Solzenitzyn’s Kolima.

Stroll south down Cleveland Avenue about half a mile to Randolph – the icy ideological tailwind will put purpose in your step.  Hang a left.  It takes you to the University of Saint Catherine:

10. Who knew? Universal health care is actually a non partisan issue. Administrators at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota—the nation’s largest Catholic women’s college—unexpectedly blocked young conservatives on campus from hosting Bay Buchanan, a popular conservative commentator and U.S. Treasurer under President Reagan. College officials deemed Ms. Buchanan’s remarks on “Feminism and the 2008 Election” too politically charged, citing concerns about the school’s tax status. Those same “concerns,” mind you, didn’t prohibit the school from sponsoring programs that push for universal healthcare and minimum wage increases or hosting Frank Kroncke, an anti-war radical who is reliving the Vietnam days. But Bay Buchanan? Well, she’s partisan, according to St. Catherine’s administration.

Of course, the Twin Cities has other contenders for the Top Ten.  Go east on Grand from St. Thomas (or north on Fairview from St. Kate’s) maybe half a mile, and you run into Macalester College, a Presbyterian-affiliated liberal (heh) arts school that richly earned a “Red” rating from FIRE for its stultifying-yet-capricious speech codes.  Then, don your wooly (rastafarian?) cap and handmuffs to plod up Snelling a mile and a half to Hamline, which earned brickbats (or perhaps ice chunks) from FIRE for suspending student Troy Scheffler for advocating legal concealed carry on campus (for students that passed Minnesota’s permitting criteria, no less).  I give ’em both a good shot at making the “top” ten before long.

And I’m so proud.

Twin Cities’ “liberal arts” campuses – where the icy winds of repression are always leaking up under your waistband.