Causing Controversy: Speakers on Campus

Recently on the University of Connecticut (UConn) campus, a speaking engagement sponsored by a student organization ended in chaos. UConn’s Republican group invited conservative writer Lucian Wintrich to campus to do a talk titled “It’s OK to be White”. Posters advertising the event sparked outrage on campus and many were torn down. During the event, it was reported that an audience member walked down to the stage and took Wintrich’s notes. Wintrich then rushed after the audience member and proceeded to attack them. The police in attendance quickly intervened and arrested Wintrich. This whole incident was caught on camera by multiple students and can be seen online. The next day, this story was all over the local and national news.

Many other universities are not strangers to this kind of incident. There have been multiple events in the last year on different campuses around the nation where speakers brought to campus caused students to protest.

As a result of these events, many campus officials are debating at what point, if any, should universities interfere with whom campus organizations bring to speak on campus? Another question boggling the minds of administrators is how should campuses handle controversial speakers? Both these questions are becoming more and more talked about as the political climate changes and as student protests begin to increase. Many student affairs organizations are starting to focus more on this issue and spark conversation within the profession. This year at the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) Region V Conference, the region focused their main event, ACUI Talks, on this subject. Within the region there have been a handful of institutes who have face this same dilemma.

Universities are finding that they are caught between a rock and a hard place because although they want to ensure that their campus is inclusive and students feel safe, they have to uphold the rights given to individuals by the First Amendment. Student organizations do have the right to bring speakers to campus to express their right to free speech. However, the issue comes when the speaker’s presence causes a dangerous situation.

In response to the events that played out at Wintrich’s speech, UConn has announced that they have changed their campus programing rules. The university stated in an email sent to campus community, “We will not allow events or other programming to take place at UConn if the university determines that an individual involved represents a danger to our community and the safety of our campuses.”

Do you agree with UConn’s response? Should other campuses follow their lead?