Read our latest statement regarding the appointment of Dr. John Eastman to the Benson Center from our Director of Legislative Affairs, Matt Harvey:
On August 12, 2020, Dr. John Eastman posted an op-ed in Newsweek, in which he alleged that Senator and Vice-Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris was ineligible to serve either as a Senator or in the executive office due to the Visa status of her parents at the time of her birth. This is a flagrant harkening to the xenophobic 'birtherism' movement that plagued former President Barack Obama, and is, put simply, racism grounded in a perverse and illegitimate appeal to constitutional law.
Dr. Eastman has been appointed as a visiting scholar with the Benson Center for Conservative Thought and Policy at CU Boulder. While GPSG stands in full support of free speech and academic freedom, we also recognize the painful struggles that our BIPOC students are facing as a long and unjust history institutional racism is being laid bare on the national stage, in higher education, and at CU Boulder. To stand silent in the face of discriminatory and inflammatory rhetoric is to stand in tacit support of racism, and we at GPSG refuse to be party to this. We stand in solidarity with the Political Science faculty and students who have spoken out against Dr. Eastman's comments, and with our BIPOC students, faculty, and staff across campus during a period of political turmoil. Stand together, Buffs."