c/college-speaker-controversies

I used to think canceling a speaker was always wrong, but then I saw what happened at my old school in Ohio last spring.

Spent $300 on a campus security deposit for a speaker last year, and the whole thing got canceled anyway.

Walking through my old campus quad and seeing the empty speaker's corner

I was back at my alma mater in Madison last weekend, just walking around. I went past the spot near the student union where they used to set up for guest speakers all the time. I mean, it was totally empty, just some kids throwing a frisbee. It got me thinking about how, maybe ten years ago, there was always some kind of event there, even if it was a bit messy. You'd see flyers for talks and sometimes small protests. Now it just feels quiet. I heard from a current student that the school's policy for outside speakers got way stricter after some big fight over a political commentator in 2019. They said the approval process takes months now. It makes me wonder if trying to avoid a problem sometimes just makes a different one, you know? Has your old school changed its rules on who can speak?

Hot take: Our student group at UC Berkeley invited a speaker and the admin shut it down an hour before

We had Dr. Liana Kerr set to talk about campus free speech. Security showed up and said the room permit was revoked. They claimed we didn't file a form, but we had the email confirmation. The whole thing got canceled. Anyone dealt with a last minute admin block like this?

Showerthought: I just looked up how much some of these canceled speakers get paid anyway

I was reading an article from the Chronicle of Higher Ed about a speaker who got disinvited from a state school in Ohio. The part that got me was the fee they were still owed. The contract had a 'kill fee' clause, so even though the event was called off after student protests, the speaker's agency still got 50% of the $20,000 fee. The college had to pay ten grand for a talk that never happened. I always figured if you cancel, you just don't pay. But these contracts are ironclad. It made me wonder how much money colleges waste on these sunk costs every year, all while tuition goes up. Does anyone know if there's a push for schools to stop signing contracts with those kinds of terms?

My campus had a speaker event that got shut down after 15 minutes because of a fire alarm pull.

It happened last Thursday at our student union, and the fire department showed up to find no actual fire. The speaker was a journalist who wrote a book on political polarization, and the whole thing felt like a cheap trick to stop the talk. Has anyone else seen a protest tactic that obvious at their school?

Watching the protest at my own school changed my view on speaker bans

I was at the University of Michigan last fall when a speaker got shouted down by a crowd. I always thought that was just students being loud. But seeing it happen, I heard a friend yell 'let him talk' and get shoved. It wasn't about ideas anymore. Now I think colleges need better rules for protests, not just canceling events. Has your school handled a shout-down without banning the speaker?

Saw a speaker get rushed off stage at my school in Ohio

A guest got shouted down by a group of about 30 students before he could even start his talk. The campus police had to escort him out, and the whole event was canceled. Has anyone else had a speaker event shut down like that?

A student changed my mind about a campus speaker last fall

After a talk at our college, a student told me, 'I came to shout him down, but I stayed to ask a question.' That happened outside the library, right in the rain. It made me see these events less as battles and more as chances, however small, for real talk. Has a speaker you disagreed with ever surprised you?

A speaker got uninvited from my old community college and it felt like a rerun

I saw on the alumni page that my old school in Fresno pulled the invite for a professor who was going to talk about city planning. The official reason was 'scheduling conflicts', but the student paper found emails showing a few complaints about her past articles. It's the same thing that happened with a historian there three years ago. At what point does avoiding a fuss become the same as picking sides?

Showerthought: My old college's 'heckler's veto' policy is just a way to ban people quietly

My school, a state university in Ohio, had a rule that if a speaker's event was likely to cause 'substantial disruption,' the administration could cancel it. They used that to stop a conservative writer from coming in 2022 after some student groups protested. I used to think that was just being safe, but a professor told me point blank, 'That's not safety, that's letting the loudest voices decide who gets heard.' It changed my whole view. Now I see those 'disruption' clauses as a backdoor to avoid free speech fights. Has your school used a rule like this to cancel a talk?

My campus had a huge fight over a speaker last semester and I was right in the middle of it

Last fall at my state school, the student government voted to bring in a political commentator known for some pretty strong views. The vote was super close, like 12 to 10. I was just a regular student, but I ended up helping with the event setup. The day before the talk, a group of about 200 students staged a sit-in outside the main hall, saying the speaker's past comments made some students feel unsafe. The administration got scared and, with only 3 hours' notice, moved the whole event to a tiny room in the library that only fit 50 people. It was a mess. People who had tickets were turned away, and the whole thing felt like a punishment for even having the debate. I mean, I get wanting to keep things calm, but just moving it felt like they were hiding the problem instead of dealing with it. Has your school ever handled a speaker situation in a way that just made things worse?

Vent: The speaker policy at my school changed completely after a 2022 protest.

Before, the student union could invite anyone, but now a faculty committee has to approve all guests. Anyone else's campus make it harder to host speakers?

My brother-in-law works campus security and his take on speaker protests surprised me

We were at a family cookout last weekend and he mentioned dealing with a protest over a speaker at his university. He said his team had to form a human barrier between the speaker's group and about 200 students who were shouting. He told me, 'My job is to keep people safe, not decide who's right. But I see kids who think shutting a talk down is a win, and I see other kids who think any protest is an attack on free speech. Both sides think they're defending the school.' It made me pause. I always leaned toward the 'let them speak' side, but hearing from someone who has to stand in the middle of it, the whole thing feels less clear. Is the goal of free speech on campus to have open debates, or is it to protect students from ideas that might cause real harm? How do you even decide where that line is?

Vent: A student at my campus protest said something that changed my view on speaker bans

I was at a rally at my university in Ohio last fall, arguing against letting a certain political commentator speak. This quiet guy next to me, who I thought was on my side, turned and said, 'If we only listen to people we agree with, how do we know we're right?' He wasn't yelling, just stating it plainly. It happened right by the library steps, and that simple question stuck with me for months. Has anyone else had a moment like that, where one person's comment made you rethink the whole 'safe space' argument?

Just had coffee with a friend who defended a speaker ban at her school, saying it prevented harm.

She argued some ideas are too dangerous for a campus, but I said that's exactly when free speech matters most. Where do you draw the line between safety and open debate?

Am I the only one who was surprised when our student group's speaker poll got over 800 responses in 48 hours, mostly from people who just wanted to see the event canceled?

It made me wonder if the loudest voices in these debates are actually a small group, and if we're letting a vocal minority dictate what ideas a whole campus gets to hear.

So I actually went to the Jordan Peterson talk at UC Berkeley after all the fuss

I figured I should hear him out myself, you know, form my own view. The whole thing was a mess with protesters trying to shout him down, and security had to clear a path just to get people inside. It made me wonder if the loudest voices are deciding who gets a platform for everyone. Has your school ever had a speaker where the protest felt like it blocked more conversation than it started?

My school used to let anyone speak, now they cancel talks over a single email

Back in 2021, our student group got a pretty out there conservative writer to come to campus with no problem, but last month they pulled the plug on a planned talk by a climate activist because ten people emailed the dean calling her views 'too extreme'. It feels like the rules changed from 'let people talk' to 'only safe ideas are allowed' in just a couple years. Are we just giving up on free speech if a small group gets to decide what we hear?

My brother said something about the campus protests at his school that really stuck with me.

He's at a state school where they canceled a speaker last month, and he said, 'It feels less like protecting us and more like the administration is just scared of bad press.' That hit different because he's usually pretty quiet about this stuff. Has anyone else seen a school pull an invite just to avoid headlines?

I used to think shouting down a speaker at my school was just fighting the good fight, but seeing a kid get shoved at a protest last week made me stop and actually listen to the other side for once.

Has anyone else had a moment like that, where the physical reality of a protest changed your view on the whole free speech debate?

Vent: The way Berkeley handled Ann Coulter versus how they handle other speakers shows a clear double standard

Back in 2017, they canceled Ann Coulter's talk over 'security concerns' after protests, but they've hosted plenty of other speakers with heavy police presence and no issue. The difference is they let one side's threats shut down speech they don't like, while finding a way to protect speech they agree with. Has anyone seen a campus that actually applies its free speech rules the same way for everyone?

Spent $75 on a ticket to see that professor from Berkeley who got shouted down last year

Everyone said it would be a waste, but hearing him explain his actual research on campus politics was worth it. The protest outside was loud, but inside he just gave a normal talk about data from student surveys. I think we need to actually listen to these speakers more instead of just reacting to headlines. Has anyone else gone to a talk that was way different than what people said it would be?

I just counted 17 speaker cancellations at big schools this semester alone

I was looking at a list from a free speech group, and the number really hit me. That's 17 planned talks that didn't happen, mostly over protests about the speaker's past comments or views. It happened at places like UCLA and a small liberal arts college in Vermont. I get why students protest, but it feels like we're just shutting down talks instead of having the hard debates. Has your school had one of these cancellations, and what was the reason given?

Shoutout to the student group at my school that tried to bring a speaker from a group the administration called extreme. They got a room booked, then the school pulled the permit three days before the event.