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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?
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umabailey
umabailey1d ago
Contracts protect speakers, @murray.grace, and those fees are just part of the deal.
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murray.grace
Wow, that reminds me of a similar mess with a local festival speaker last year.
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