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A videotape with excerpts from a forum on modern-day fascism has propelled Northern Arizona Universityinto the national debate over campus free speech and intimidation, both online and in the classroom.

Some of the fallout includes a professor who complained to police of fears for her safety after the videotape surfaced on an alt-right website, and the student videographer, who is looking to transfer because she doesn't feel welcome.

Free speech, said the professor, does not include hate speech.

Theres a difference between expressing ideas, which is different from racism and sexism, said Lori Poloni-Staudinger, the Politics and International Affairs department chair at NAU who was attacked online.

But the student, freshman political science major Melissa Miller, feels equally aggrieved.

I am being bullied by professors in their classrooms and in these faculty meetings. It's sick. No matter what your political background there is no business singling out a student publicly with no correct information, or accusing her of things when you don't have the whole story, she wrote in a recent Facebook post.

The video includes an NAU professor calling President Trump the rapist in chief and a lecturer, misidentified as Poloni-Staudinger, comparing todays politics to the conditions that gave rise to the Nazis.

Poloni-Staudinger said the flood of threats started the day after the forum and included comments such as, When are these professors going to understand that theyre going to pay for this with their lives? Theyve become the hunted. And handling things with a 9 mm.

Miller, who took the video and gave the rights to it to the alt-right website, Campus Reform, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that shes been threatened, too. She said she went to the forum because shes a political science major and recorded the event for her notes. (The forum was not sponsored by the department.)

It might have stopped there, she said, if she hadnt learned later that another NAU professor at the forum criticized her after she had stepped out of the room for videotaping lectures and posting them to another alt-right website, Professor Watchlist, for the purpose of intimidation. As a result, she sent the videotape to Campus Reform, which posted an excerpt along with a story based on its contents.

Miller states in a Facebook post that no NAU professors are on the Watchlist and a check of the Watchlist shows that she is correct. However, Campus Reform has posted another video of an NAU political science class and a letter from an NAU English teacher docking a student one point from their paper because they used the word mankind instead of a gender neutral term. In the letter the English teacher gives the student a chance to make up the 11 points they missed on the paper and leave mankind in the paper, but would still dock one point for mankind.

Campus Reform, which bills itself as reporting on conduct and misconduct at universities, is a project of the Leadership Institute, which, according to its website, teaches conservatives of all ages how to succeed in politics, government, and the media.

Campus Reform eventually corrected its error in misidentifying Poloni-Staudinger, but not before the damage had been done. Shes still getting threats and nasty comments, forcing her to shut down her social media accounts.

She also took screen shots of the threats and reported them to NAUs Police Department. She was told the department cant do anything about the threats because theyre too general -- they refer to professors and teachers, but not action against Poloni-Staudinger specifically. The universitys harassment policy also doesnt specifically include online harassment.

"NAU respects the right to free speech of all participants in the educational experience. We also expect that individuals exercise their rights with integrity, honesty, and respect for other participants," NAU Assistant Director of Communications Heidi Toth told The Chronicle, and NAU Director of Communications Kim Ott reiterated to the Arizona Daily Sun.

Poloni-Staudinger said she feels that free speech including the forum -- is open to all on campus and she didnt have any problem with conservative groups being on campus. Shes worked with the Young Republicans and Young Democrats. Her class also had a frank discussion after the November election results came in.

But Miller is still transferring at the end of the semester.

Y'all ruined my life at NAU, she posted to Facebook. People think I'm alt-right and a racist.

See more here:
Video posted to alt-right website sets off firestorm at NAU - Arizona Daily Sun