Lewinsky to Speak for First Amendment Week

STUDENT AFFAIRS | The 2020 First Amendment Week featured speaker, Monica Lewinsky, a social psychologist and activist against cyberbullying, will talk on the theme “Reclaiming Our Stories.” Lewinsky came into the public eye in the late 1990s when she became a central figure in former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment after he lied and then admitted to having a relationship with her.

First Amendment Week, a signature event on the LMU calendar, is presented by the Loyolan, the student newspaper, and ASLMU. This year’s keynote will be Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. in Burns Back Court.

The First Amendment enshrined in the U.S. Constitution is a cherished value at Loyola Marymount University, with deep roots in the higher education ethos and in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions. It guarantees freedom to exercise religion but to not be coerced into a religion; freedom of assembly; and the right to petition the government. It also guarantees no curtailing of the freedom of speech or of the press.

“The university is a marketplace of ideas,” Lane Bove, senior vice president of the Student Affairs division, told LMU Magazine in 2018. “If we can’t talk about anything and everything at Loyola Marymount University, then we are failing.”

A variety of speakers have addressed the LMU audience for First Amendment Week, including actress America Ferrera, singer John Legend, activist and actor Jesse Williams, journalist Jemele Hill, Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer Mark Boal, Democratic political consultant James Carville, Republican Party adviser Karl Rove, the rapper Common, The Onion editor Dan Mirk, and others.

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