That time our student group got flak for inviting a controversial ex-governor to campus

So back in March, my college's Young Americans club booked this former governor from the 90s who had some pretty loud opinions on immigration. The night before his speech, someone found a clip of him saying something about building a wall around the entire state and it went viral on our campus Snapchat stories. By noon the next day, a bunch of students had set up a protest outside the lecture hall with signs and chants. I was just there to help set up chairs, but I ended up having to talk to the dean when he showed up asking if we wanted security to intervene. We decided to let the event go ahead but moved it to a bigger room so both sides could have space. The guy gave his talk with like 20 protesters standing in the back silently holding signs, and honestly it was super tense but nobody got violent. The whole thing made me wonder if schools should just let any speaker come or if there's a line somewhere. How do you guys handle it when you're part of the group that actually booked the speaker and everything blows up?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameron68416d ago

Let it go ahead but moved it to a bigger room" - man, I was the guy who had to go buy extra extension cords for the mics when that happened to us. Did you at least get free snacks out of it?

matthewh2816d ago

Come on, free snacks? That's not the point. You're making it sound like a tragedy that you had to buy extension cords. It's a few bucks at Home Depot. The real question is why nobody planned for the room change in the first place. I've seen this happen a dozen times at community events and church gigs. Someone always shows up late with a folding table and acts like they saved the day. It's just logistics, not a crisis. Stop acting like you got robbed.

umabailey11d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, they really just moved it to a bigger room and called it a day? That's wild to me. Like, I've seen people scramble for extension cords before but usually they at least warn someone ahead of time, not just spring it on the sound guy last minute (or whoever had to run to Home Depot). You know what gets me though? The fact that nobody even thought about where the outlets were in the new room. That's like the first thing you check when you swap spaces, right? I've been to a dozen of these events myself and it's always the same - someone thinks bigger room equals better setup, but then you're running cords across doorways and tripping everyone. And yeah, sure, it's "just logistics" like he says, but when you're the one holding the receipt for three extension cords and a power strip, it feels a little different. I'm not saying it's a tragedy, I'm just saying maybe a heads-up would've been nice before I had to dig through my trunk for loose change.