The Tulane University Law School invited Charles “Cully” Stimson, a lawyer and member of The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think-tank behind the controversial Project 2025, for a debate on March 24, 2025. Tulane University should never have invited Stimson on two basic principles: one, Stimson and The Heritage foundation already have the loudest podium in the U.S — that is, the presidency. Secondly, Tulane betrays its minority students by giving a platform to someone who routinely denies their rights and their own humanity.
To begin, why do Stimson and The Heritage Foundation need a platform on Tulane’s campus? To make sure no one on campus lives in an echo chamber? Well, not only do the foundation and Stimson live in echo chambers, but anyone watching the news will be met with The Heritage Foundation’s talking points.
Stimson claims that progressive prosecutors use data and science as a hoax to promote reformative policies. Stimson looks at two examples of studies being used to promote these policies: a recalled study and policies in Chicago and a second study based in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, the latter of which he or The Heritage Foundation could not test.
For the recalled study, neither Stimson nor The Heritage Foundation did any of the work. The work was done by writers at the Chicago Tribune and certified criminologists. Despite these issues, Stimson sees no problem in making his wild claims that prosecutors who use data are “rogue.” Stimson ignores all other effective studies in his article, suggesting that he lives in an echo chamber himself.
The Heritage Foundation also openly supports President Donald Trump, even though he once disavowed their “Project 2025” proposal, which would roll back decades of American progress. Now, with Trump holding the presidency, he has walked back his statements disavowing the institution, all the while repeating Heritage talking points.
According to a CBS News article, their team, through a line-by-line review, “identified at least 270 proposals in Project 2025’s published blueprint for the next Republican president that match Trump’s past policies and current campaign promises.”
For example, CBS wrote in August, “Project 2025 calls for scouring federal agencies’ rules and programs for any mention of gender identity, protection of transgender rights or gender-affirming care – and excising them.”
In his first day in office, Trump signed the executive order “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” ordering the executive offices to “terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and ‘environmental justice’ offices and positions.” Neither Stimson nor The Heritage Foundation need any more podiums.
By hosting Stimson, Tulane leaves behind members of the LGBTQ+ community and the African American community. For one, DEI works to protect these groups. Tulane, having recently renamed the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to the Office of Academic Excellence and Opportunity, has dealt another blow to these communities by inviting their executioner to campus.
Imagine if Tulane School of Medicine was shuttered due to the federal government’s funding cuts and research restrictions, and then Tulane invited U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. participate in a debate. Students, faculty and staff would be livid. The only difference here is Stimson is lower-profile and does not make decisions directly in the federal government. However, it is the ideas he stands for that offend me and should offend you.
Before Trump took office, Tulane held the principle that everyone should help each other. Even today, it promotes this idea in the motto: “Non sibi, sed suis,” meaning “not for oneself, but for one’s own.”
However, Tulane has shown it would rather cater to the powerful few than fight for its own. While I can understand fighting for funding by renaming the DEI Office, I cannot forgive allowing the executioner to walk among us and promote “civil discussion.” DEI was civil discussion. This is a victory lap, and Tulane should be ashamed to allow it.
