Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
November-December 2000 – Jason Van Dyke, a Michigan State University (MSU) junior, charged that the campus paper dismissed him from the staff last spring because of his conservative views. Since then, he has suffered personal assaults on his property, vandalism in his dorm room, theft and intimidation. But Jason Van Dyke is not a quitter.
He is passionate and motivated about issues he believes in, according to Justin Miller, Baptist minister and leader of MSU’s Christian Challenge. Miller leads a Bible study in which Van Dyke regularly participates. “Jason is probably one of the few people actually practicing free speech on campus,” Miller told AFA.
In an October 10 letter, Van Dyke wrote, “I was fired last [school] year from The State News in controversy involving a column I wrote that described the campus homosexual rights movement as hypocritical in the way they teach tolerance and diversity.” The State News is the university’s official daily campus paper. Following pressure from a campus homosexual activist group, Van Dyke was fired two days later.
Ironically, trying to silence Jason Van Dyke may be futile. Since he was fired, he has addressed the issue of campus media bias on C-Span, Lansing Upfront, and Battle of Ideas television programs; and Truth Under Fire and On the Mark radio shows. The story has also appeared in National Review and Michigan Review magazines.
This fall, Van Dyke founded The Spartan Spectator, a bi-weekly conservative newspaper on the MSU campus. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), The Leadership Institute, Accuracy in Academia, and others provided seed money for the new paper.
On October 19, Van Dyke’s room was vandalized while he studied in the dormitory study lounge three doors down the hall. This is the most personal of a series of attacks that began last spring. Earlier incidents included the theft of entire stacks of The Spartan Spectator from distribution points.
Explaining the October 19 assault, Van Dyke said, “At first, the damage appeared to be minimal. There was a large amount of popcorn dumped all over the floor. However, when I began to climb into my loft, I saw that...someone had urinated on the mattress and written the word ‘DIE’ on the loft.” Finally, the vandals stole his credit card number and ordered merchandise delivered to Van Dyke’s room.
Police say perpetrators, if identified, could be charged with vandalism, assault (because of the word “DIE” written on Van Dyke’s loft), and theft (for the stolen credit card number).
Gary Glenn, president of AFA of Michigan, said, “On the MSU campus, it appears the First Amendment [freedom of speech guarantee] applies to everyone except a student who disagrees with the homosexual political agenda.”
Van Dyke’s situation is not unique. Across the nation, conservative and Christian journalists are often carefully excluded from official campus publications. According to Family News in Focus (FNF), conservative editor Wesley Wynne discovered last year that his papers had been stolen from newsstands at University of Texas. “We know they were stolen,” he told FNF, “because we would come back an hour after they were put out and they would all be gone.”
Now with ISI, Wynne says, “Jason Van Dyke is a fearless kind of guy. He’ll say what he believes and not back down.”
The Spectator has a budget of more than $10,000 for this school year, but even with the seed money grants, it still needs $5,000 to keep the paper afloat, some of it immediately. The Spectator is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and donations are tax deductible.
Jason Van Dyke didn’t set out to be a martyr. Or even a hero. But he’s not a quitter. He has the passion and the perseverance to use his gifts and talents to share the truth. 
