Providence College Open Debate Controversy #RIghtToSpeak

Michael Smalanskas, of Holden, Massachusetts, was a senior at Providence College — a Dominican Catholic college in Providence, Rhode Island — studying to become a teacher. On March 1, Smalanskas posted on the bulletin board in his dorm a defense of traditional and Catholic marriage.  After he displayed his message, Smalanskas was threatened by unknown parties with a cartoon of homosexual rape. As a result of coverage by the Center’s media and commentary wing the Ocean State Current,Rev. Brian Shanley, President of Providence College, affirmed Catholic Marriage and condemned the progressive bullying against Smalanskas.

VP Goodwin Takes Out Restraining Order

Michael Smalanskas, who was recently the center of an open debate battle with progressive activists over a bulletin board he posted educating students about traditional Catholic marriage, has been barred from campus and has had a restraining order taken out against him by Vice President for Student Affairs Kristine Goodwin. Goodwin openly supported the progressive groups on campus, speaking at a rally following a diversity march in response to the display.

Shanley: PC Affirms Catholic Marriage, Condemns Bullying of Smalanskas

Providence College President Rev. Brian Shanley affirms the college’s Catholic identity and the Church’s teaching on marriage and condemns the treatment of RA Michael Smalanskas. Shanley writes, “My office has been barraged with phone calls and e-mails that have been angry, accusatory, and ironically uncharitable.  Many suggest that Providence College has abandoned its Catholic identity and fidelity to Church teachings, particularly with regard to the sanctity of Marriage, and has succumbed to ‘political correctness.'”

Statement from the Center:

Progressive Administrator Pursues Personal Vendetta

Makes False Allegations Against Conservative Student

Aggrieved Graduate Becomes Target of ‘Progressive Correctness’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 23, 2018

Providence, RI – He was threatened with rape and sodomy. He was the subject of a campus wide protest-march, organized by school officials themselves. He was later threatened with murder. Not only did his college do little if nothing to discipline those who accosted him, but now the school is persecuting him by barring him from stepping foot on campus, including his on-campus job.

He is Michael Smalanskas, of Holden, Massachusetts, a recently graduated senior at Providence College – a Dominican Catholic college in Providence, Rhode Island – studying to become a teacher.  He was also an employee of the college as a resident advisor (RA) to his dormitory Saint Joseph’s Hall.

After attempting to engage in open political debate earlier this semester, Smalanskas, who posted on the bulletin board in his dorm a defense of traditional and Catholic marriage, Smalanskas has been repeatedly threatened by other students. Now this week, as documented in The Ocean State Current, Smalanskas is being personally targeted by Kristine Goodwin, Vice President of Student Affairs at Providence College, who misrepresented facts to the state judicial system and convinced them to issue a personal restraining order against Smalanskas; this, in addition to manipulating college administrators to issue a ‘campus no trespass’ order against him.

The Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity calls on Providence College administrators to explain why they are acceding to the delusions of one of their own progressive administrators who is publicly attacking one their own conservative students on obviously false pretenses.

“‘Progressive Correctness’ is out of control in Rhode Island and on college campuses across the country,” said the Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse. “The intolerance of Ms. Goodwin and the progressive movement is on full display here, as they maliciously seek to hunt down and shut down those with whom they disagree; even if it means advancing false claims. To think that a Catholic college would punish a Catholic student, who was himself threatened, for advancing Catholic teachings … and then would also support the maniacal fantasies of an administrator against that student … is unimaginable, and can only happen the progressive land of make believe.”

On The Current, which has documented the Smalanskas ordeal from the beginning, prior articles can be found on the “Complete Coverage” tool in the middle of this article: http://oceanstatecurrent.com/investigative-report/vice-president-kristine-goodwin/

Watch Smalanskas tell phase-1 of his story to Mike Stenhouse by clicking the link here.

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