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From Cleveland.com:
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Kent State University, facing the threat of a lawsuit, reiterated on Friday that it cannot accommodate a request to allow white nationalist Richard Spencer to speak in early May as part of his campus tour.
The university, which is based in Kent but has regional campuses elsewhere in the state, said it had responded to attorney Kyle Bristow reaffirming its earlier response that no suitable space is available for Spencer to speak between April 30 and May 12.
Bristow had told Kent State it had until the end of business Friday to agree to rent space at an "acceptable date and time" or face a lawsuit. Several other schools, including Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati, are in litigation over Spencer.
Tour organizer Cameron Padgett wanted Spencer to speak at Kent State on the May 4 anniversary of Ohio National Guard shootings that killed four students during anti-war protests in 1970. The university said early May is too busy with activities around the end of the academic year.
Bristow said last year that Spencer planned to speak March 14 on the University of Cincinnati campus, but the university said there was no contract in place, and the two sides are now in a legal standoff over the university's demand for a security fee of nearly $11,000.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Thursday February 15 2018, @07:12PM (4 children)
And who will be paying for the police work again? Police don't work for free. As you can plainly see, I am all for Spencer's right to express his political views, and I also believe that a university campus, out of all places, is a highly appropriate place to host someone expressing highly controversial views, even if the speaker is a poster of a troll. But I do not see how Spencer or anyone else can expect the taxpayer to foot his security bills whenever he purposefully hurls himself in the middle of a very hostile audience to present his views. We are not made of money, and there are rights, including this little number [wikisource.org], which also need protection.
Offering a second lecture hall to anyone won't do anything. The same 40% of college students who are prepared to infringe on Spencer's constitutional right to free speech, however hypocritical and wrong that is with respect to the US law, could not give less of a damn. They don't want to be heard because, let's be fair, they don't have anything particularly smart to say. They just want Spencer to shut up and go away. So I don't see why it would be unfair for schools to require speakers who were attacked in the past to hire their own security detail, or else go and express their views somewhere else, like the net.
I would concede that ideally, public venues should carry this burden. May be they should have a free-expression budget out of which to pay for the protection of free speech on campus, but I am trying to be realistic. As it stands, many public colleges and universities in USA lack sufficient funds to provide adequate instruction, and that for many complex reasons. So of course they can make a case that spending thousands of dollars to protect a visiting troll is a giant middle finger to their students. This money will certainly come out of the pile which would otherwise be spent on hiring another full-time political science faculty instructor, who certainly has her own opinions to share.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 15 2018, @08:03PM
I see absolutely no reason why universities should be a free-for-all, and freedom of speech != given a free soap box. If a student group reserves a location for whatever speaker they'd like then sure, but speakers don't just get to decide they'll have an auditorium on any state campus they'd like.
Speaking of trolls, you sure seem like one with your closing line: "This money will certainly come out of the pile which would otherwise be spent on hiring another full-time political science faculty instructor, who certainly has her own opinions to share."
UNDER THE BRIDGE FOUL BEAST!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by arcz on Thursday February 15 2018, @09:05PM (2 children)
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @01:48AM
Truly, arcx, you are dumber than a bag of hammers. Take your all caps, and stick them as magnets on your refridgerator door.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by melikamp on Friday February 16 2018, @07:42AM