Watching Adams Staff Commentary – 10/26/15

A recent campus ban of former Adams State University (ASU) faculty member, media producer, and Watching Adams publisher Danny Ledonne by President Beverlee McClure has raised the question: is Ledonne a threat to campus safety?

Ask the hundreds of campus staff, faculty, or community members who know and continue to interact with Danny Ledonne. Visit his Facebook page or other social media. View any of the hundreds of video projects he had created for environmental, educational, or nonprofit organizations. View any of the dozens of videos still embedded throughout the ASU website produced by him. View his feature length documentary “Playing Columbine” that details the context and broader social game arts movement within which his videogame exploring the Columbine school shooting exists.  Watch him eat an “illegal” Kinder Egg chocolate or dance to “Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.”  Check his credit score, eBay rating, or non-existent criminal record. Ask his friends, family, or pet parrotlets.

Or ask ASU Vice President of Student Affairs Ken Marquez, whose June 22nd 2015 email stated in full: “Danny, Thanks for meeting with me on June 12, 2015. This is the official summary of the Campus Health and Safety (CHS) team’s process. The CHS Committee received information. The team determined that Ken Marquez would speak to Danny Ledonne. Ken Marquez met with Danny on June 12, 2015. In consultation with the Campus Health and Safety committee we do not find an actionable threat at this time. Thanks again, Ken”

Is Ledonne a threat to campus safety? As his own response to the President McClure letter banning him from campus states, ASU has yet to produce any specific policy, statute, or evidence to indicate otherwise. If such evidence exists, why was it not presented to Ledonne prior to banning him from campus?

Could it be that Ledonne has been wrongfully profiled or misunderstood by those who do not know him and have shown no willingness to meet with him despite his repeated written and verbal requests to the University President and Board of Trustees for mediation? Could it be that he was banned from campus in retaliation for creating a public interest website to monitor the policies and practices of ASU administration?

Is Ledonne a threat to campus safety? The answer is for every reader to decide, but no court of law has determined this to be the case.  President McClure has claimed that for every person opposing the ban, she has talked to someone else (in ASU administration?) who supports it.  But that is irrelevant; an individual citizen’s access to public institutions is not subject to majority rule or a university president’s individual discretion.

Ledonne should be innocent until proven guilty through judicially-administered due process, just like you.