November 3, 1994
Students protest Round Table talk and Itzkoff
Outside of Duckett House, students held protest signs as Professor Seymour Itzkoff’s Round Table talk was taking place. The contents of Itzkoff’s recently published book, The Decline of Intelligence in America, had caused a lot of controversy on campus due to its premise of intelligence being based on genetics and upper-class people being more intelligent than lower class people. The protesters continued their statement by chalking outside of Itzkoff’s Wright Hall office. Students also protested Itzkoff’s views when they walked out of the Round Table discussion; this came about after Itzkoff told a student of color that her discomfort in his class had stemmed from her own insecurities and biases towards him.
The full Sophian article on the protest measures can be found here (1, 2, 9).
A Sophian letter to the editor by Itzkoff in response can be found here.
[Last updated on October 31, 2018]