Maricopa County’s controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio is scheduled to visit of Downtown campus on Nov. 30 for a “Must See Monday” appearance sponsored by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

And as should be expected anytime anyone remotely controversial makes a public appearance on campus, ASU students are up in arms about the event, ready to protest like hell against the five-time elected sheriff.

A Facebook event titled “Rally Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio at ASU Downtown” already sports hundreds of members vowing to come out and show Sheriff Joe how they feel about his treatment of illegal immigrants.

Like he doesn’t already know you hate him.

The backlash against Arpaio’s appearance has been so intense it elicited a response from dean of the Cronkite School, Christopher Callahan.

“The sheriff was invited to answer questions from our panel of distinguished journalists precisely because of his controversial relationship with the news media and First Amendment battles,” Callahan wrote on the Facebook page and later sent to all Cronkite students in an e-mail. “The job of the journalist is to hold people and institutions of power accountable for their actions.”

Arpaio will not be merely speaking at ASU, as Callahan explains — he was invited to participate in a roundtable session with three Cronkite faculty members, modeled afterthe “Meet the Press” tradition of Q-and-A.

Protesting Arpaio is a freedom that anyone has and may well be a noble cause, but outside the Cronkite School during his appearance on Nov. 30 is not the time or place for such a rally.

Worse, the protest may end up coming off as juvenile and raucous, detracting from what Arpaio says inside the building — things people need to hear. Things he can be challenged on.

Want to send Arpaio a message? Get people to vote. Instead of protesting the event, encourage people, those who may support Arpaio and especially those who don’t bother to vote, to attend the interview session. Maybe they’ll learn something. Maybe they’ll join the opposition.

But protesting Joe won’t do a thing; he’s seen thousands of picketers in his 16-year tour of duty. He continues to win elections by double digits, so the rallying efforts of angry protesters is little more than white noise to his aging ears.

The three accomplished journalists who will be asking Arpaio questions are not his friends. If they care about doing a good job (which, after reviewing their resumes, it seems they do) they will ask Arpaio hardball questions. Rick Rodriguez, one of the interviewers and Latino himself, is working “to develop a new cross-disciplinary specialization in the coverage of issues related to Latinos and the U.S.-Mexico border” according to his biography.

I’d wager Rodriguez is pretty knowledgeable about the dubious practices Arpaio has been up to and is going to appropriately question America’s Toughest Sheriff.

The students planning on protesting Sheriff Joe are going to accomplish nothing but upsetting administration and making themselves look silly.

Send Sheriff Joe a message by sitting in on the discussion and listening to what he has to say.

Reach Dustin at dustin.volz@asu.edu.