Two Arizona State University (ASU) professors sent “harassing emails” with requests for inclusion in the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) Professor Watchlist after signing a letter labeling Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk “purveyors of hate” and seeking to prevent their February 2023 appearance at the T.W. Lewis Center, according to its former executive director.
Former T.W. Lewis Center executive director Ann Atkinson provided emails to The Arizona Sun Times sent by two ASU professors who teach at Barrett, the university’s honors College where the center was housed, showing the professors lobby for inclusion into the Professors Watchlist. The Faculty Chair of Barrett, the Honors College where the center was housed, was included in one email.
Atkinson’s role at the university was terminated when the T.W. Lewis Center abruptly closed after Arizona businessman Tom Lewis, who founded and funded the center, pulled $400,000 in annual funding after witnessing the treatment of Kirk, Prager, and Atkinson. She discussed alleged harassment and abuse from ASU faculty, particularly the 37 of 47 Barrett faculty who signed the petition, and inaction from university deans, during a joint hearing in the Arizona Legislature that examined alleged restrictions on freedom of expression in the state’s public institutions.
Speaking to The Sun Times, Atkinson (pictured above) said “some of the harassment emails I received from faculty” using their ASU email addresses “included harassing emails requesting to be added to the Turning Point Professor Watchlist.” The Professor Watchlist maintains the names of professors TPUSA say they believe “discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”
