Hot take: My roommate shut down a talk about campus free speech before it even started

Last semester, our student group tried to bring a journalist to campus who wrote a book on political protests. We booked a room in the student union for a Thursday night. My roommate, who wasn't even in the group, saw the flyer and said, 'Why would you give that guy a platform? His views are harmful.' He spent the next two days posting in our class group chats, calling the event dangerous and urging people to complain. The college got over thirty emails and pulled our room booking 'for safety concerns' with less than 24 hours notice. We had to cancel the whole thing. I asked him if he ever actually read the guy's work, and he just said it didn't matter. So now we can't even have a conversation because someone decided it shouldn't happen. Has anyone else had an event killed by a small, loud group before most people even heard about it?

3 comments

3 Comments

margaret69224d agoTop Commenter

for safety concerns" is such a wild get out of jail free card. my club's bake sale got shut down for that once, we were a genuine threat to the gluten-free community i guess.

torres.pat24d ago

Safety concerns are the WORST excuse.

miles2773d ago

My kid's school once banned red shirts for "safety" during spirit week.