Scheduled a controversial speaker for a diversity event and the board shut it down an hour before doors opened

I was on the student activities committee at a small liberal arts college near Portland last semester. We booked a speaker who had some hot takes on affirmative action, thought it would spark good discussion. After the flyers went up, a faculty board voted to cancel citing 'safety concerns'. We had already spent $1,200 of the student activity fund on his travel deposit. Nobody even asked the students what they wanted. Has anyone else had a speaker contract fall apart last minute like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

patriciam2220d ago

And the board KNEW about the speaker when the contract was signed, right? They just waited until it was too late to pull the plug instead of having a conversation.

leo_carr1320d ago

Holding a contract over basic decency is wild, especially when the speaker in question has a history of saying questionable stuff that the board probably couldve googled. If they were worried about legal fees, a simple mediation clause would have been way cheaper than the PR nightmare theyre in now. Either the board was hoping nobody would notice, or theyre just that bad at their jobs, neither look good.