Woke Yale students are now planning to protest a scheduled talk with Republican Senator Ted Cruz just three weeks after they threatened violence against a female conservative speaker.
Cruz was invited to record an episode of Verdict, the political podcast he hosts with Michael Knowles, at a hotel on campus by the school's William F. Buckley Jr. program in partnership with the Young America's Foundation's Irving Brown Lecture Series.
The Buckley program, a student-run group which promotes political programming, strives to 'promote intellectual diversity on Yale's campus,' according to the Yale Daily News.
But some students have called into question the program's decision to invite Cruz to campus, with freshman Jamie Nichols telling the Yale Daily News: 'I feel like, in this case, it's better to not give him the platform, given his actions and bringing him to campus kind of affirms those actions.'
Students told the newspaper that they expect there to be protests at the April 11 event, which has already been sold-out as hundreds of people are expected to attend.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, pictured on April 4, was invited to speak on the Yale campus on April 11 by the school's William F. Buckley Jr. program
He and Michael Knowles, right, are set to record an episode of their podcast Verdict at the campus on April 11
And Buckley President Kevin Xiao, a junior at the ivy league school, has already found himself defending his decision to invite the Texas senator.
'Yale students rarely have the opportunity to hear from speakers like Sen. Cruz, and listening to different perspectives in good faith fosters a healthy and lively discourse both on campus and beyond,' he told the Yale Daily News.
He said students will have the opportunity to ask questions, and the senator has said he welcomes questions from those who disagree with him - noting that one's disagreement does not make it any less important for students to hear new perspectives.
'In fact, such differences of opinion remind us of why we have free speech, especially at institutions of higher learning where the mission is the cultivation and creation of new knowledge,' Xiao wrote in an email to the Daily News.
'Students should be able to hear different voices, engage with them in good faith and decide for ourselves whether we agree or disagree.
'Only through open and honest discussion can we grow and better understand our own values and beliefs,' he added.
Some students at the Ivy League school (pictured) say it should not provide Cruz with a platform
But opponents of the conservative senator say he should not be allowed to speak on the campus, given his questioning of transgenderism and his support for the theory that the 2020 election was 'stolen.'
'That some perspectives diverging from those held commonly may have value, does not mean that perspectives have value because they diverge from the majority,' senior Naomi D'Arbell Bodabilla, of Texas, told the newspaper.
'This is especially worth remembering when the majority in question is the majority of people who do not enable a right-wing insurrection, which Ted Cruz did.'
Carly Benson, a sophomore from Texas, also said: 'I think he has to understand that people are not going to be that excited about him coming.
'I feel like he's probably excited for people to hate him because then he can be the victim ... he gets to be like "Oh I went to Yale, and look what the radical left did,' she alleged.
And Zaharaa Altwaij, a freshman, expressed concern that giving the senator a platform could legitimize
