Transcript of "Louis should be welcome":

Louis should be welcome

To Dr. Eamon Kelly:

Since my exclusion from campus by your administration Nov. 1, I have attempted, with logical argument, to persuade your representative, Linus Coignet, to reassess your position. He has refused to do so.

When I asked Assistant Dean Greg Goodwin if I was to be given an opportunity to tell my side of the story, his reply was a simple, "No." At one point I requested that you look into this personally. You wrote back to inform me you had "investigated the matter and find no basis on which to reverse the decision."

It is interesting that, during the course of your investigation, you found no need whatever to question me regarding the particulars of any allegation made against me. Had you done so, such a basis may, conceivably, have been found. What I have found is that there has been not more than a weak pretense of fair play or even-handedness on the part of the Kelly administration, and at times, not even so much as a pretense.

As you no doubt are aware, on the night of Dec. 4, in front of your residence on St. Charles Avenue, I gathered with a sizable group of Tulane students uncomfortable with the attempt by your administration to place limitations on the selection of their friends or the pursuit of their friendships. We have since presented you with numerous letters signed by individual students, petitioning my return.

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Though a few may lack proficiency, Tulane students, as adults, should be permitted the liberty of selecting their own friends. More than a few, certainly, are capable of doing so without any need of assistance from the Kelly administration. Your actions serve to deny students their freedoms and limit their opportunities while giving Tulane the character of a private boarding school.

Where truth and knowledge are valued and earnestly pursued, as should be the case at a university, diversity is welcomed, free interchange of ideas and philosophies is encouraged and freedoms of speech and association are respected and protected. Should Tulane not champion these liberties rather than thwart them?

I have not been accused of a criminal misdeed, nor has civil action been brought against me. If the Kelly administration cannot charge me openly with some serious wrongdoing while providing an opportunity for a reasonable defense before an impartial tribunal, I should be free, and indeed welcome, to enter the Tulane campus.

Louis K. Rothbard
Alumnus

Editor's Note: This is a copy of a letter sent to President Eamon Kellyo