Freedom of speech is under assault at
UCSB, and what happened at Associated
Students Legislative Council last night
should send a chill down the spine of every
student interested in free and open debate
on campus.
College Republicans at UCSB intend
to bring controversial, polemic David
Horowitz to UCSB on May 26, and we
requested a small amount of funding
from Finance Board to cover security and
audio-visual costs (the final amount came
out to $1,770). To put this in perspective,
security costs for UCSB CR’s Karl Rove
event last year was well over $10,000, and
Associated Students this year presided over
a $9 million budget. We were asking for
pocket change, and that small allocation
would have covered security, making sure
Horowitz and the students coming to the
free event would be kept safe from any
protesters who got out of control.
Our request was denied, and we were
allocated $0 because “the dialogue between
Horowitz and UCSB students [would] not
be a constructive one.” Yet, California law
requires A.S. not consider the ideological
content of a speaker’s presentation when
deciding whether or not to provide them
with funds. Finance Board broke the law
in an attempt to silence David Horowitz’s
free speech.
When we asked Leg Council to
reconsider Finance Board’s decision, we
were accused of being a privileged group
on campus by one of the council members
— which is news to us — because we were
“white, straight males.” Our request of
funds was compared to the Civil Rights
Movement — apparently providing
security costs for Horowitz is equivalent
to supporting segregation — and when
A.S. finally allocated by consent $1,100
to cover only the security portion of our
request, Leg Council — being accused of
“Islamophobia” by a gaggle of anti-free
speech protesters in the audience — went
back, breaking their own parliamentary
rules, to revote on the allocation. But the
allocation was passed by consent, a silent
vote — you cannot revote on a vote that
never happened.
When the five of us representing College
Republicans finally left Leg Council, after
being attacked by the audience and Leg
Council members for five straight hours,
one of my club members confided in me,
telling me that he had never felt more
discriminated against and personally
targeted in his entire life. He wanted to
raise his hand and tell this to the Leg
Council earlier, but he feared upsetting
the council members and jeopardizing our
allocation.
The UCSB College Republicans are
asking that the A.S. Leg Council formally
apologize for the discrimination we were
subjected to during that meeting, both by
individual council members and members
of the audience who were yielded speakingtime
by members of the council, and for
the breaking of parliamentary procedure
that inappropriately reduced our funding
from $1,100 to $800. This is not a personal
attack on Leg Council — I know many
council members personally and have great
respect for them as individuals — but A.S.
is an elected board. College Republicans
pay student fees as well, voted in the
elections and deserve to be treated with the
same respect as every minority on campus.
David Horowitz will come to this
campus, whether we receive $1,100 or
only $800 from finance board. We invite
everyone who so viscously opposed us to
respectfully attend the event, but we ask
that you act like mature adults and give us
and David Horowitz the same respect that
we gave you at the meeting last night.
Steven Begakis is a third-year political
science and economics major and president of
the UCSB College Republicans.
Steve is absolutely right. His group deserves an apology. Are these people so close minded that they can only tolerate hearing speakers that agree with what they already think? Are college students so afraid to hear opinions that differ from their own? Think about it…aren’t we here to listen and evaluate and form our own opinions from ALL the information? How will our world improve if we are unwilling to at least listen to the opinions of others?
It appears there are few things as prejudiced and intolerant as liberals.
What an irnoy. Those who think they’re so open-minded are in reality about as close minded as imagineable.
Though I don’t share your opinion that this is an instance of liberal intolerance, I do agree that liberals are closer to fascists than conservatives will ever come (I don’t consider myself a conservative, I have plenty of hate for them too).
Nik, I also cannot stand conservatives, but at least they generally stand for the freedoms enshrined in our consitution, whereas every chance liberals get to side with those who hate America they embrace. Be it siding with Hugo Chavez or blaming America for all of Islma’s self-inflicted wounds their (liberals) knee-jerk instincts are destroying our country. Instincts are a poor substitute for analysis. Just to be clear I will be the first to agree that our country has innumerable faults and a history that speaks volumes to these faults, but that should only motivate people to work harder towards improving… Read more »
I hate when the student council denies funding a speaker and students jump to, “free speech is under attack”. No it’s not. Nobody is keeping you from saying whatever you want. What is happening is the officials we elected are making decisions about how to best appropriate our the funds available to them. Let’s say there was $100 left and both Steven Hawking and Steve-O wanted to come speak at UCSB, but they both charged $100. Now it’s up to the student council to decide who to fund. Both speakers would draw crowds, but ultimately only one could speak. Let’s… Read more »
You clearly are not getting the point of this letter. Free speech is under attack when funding is denied due to the controversial words that come from the speaker. (see the article in the Nexus where AS Finance Board denied funding to CR’s) Your example is also not relevant in this case. Their is only one speaker, not two. Thus, no choice. What was being asked was money for security and audio, not the speaker. Fiance Board allocates money on a first come first serve basis. They cannot reserve funds based on the idea that their might be other groups… Read more »
What are you afraid of?
Can you listen to a speaker and then make up your own mind?
Why are you here at UC?
This is what College Republicans are bringing to our campus.
How about you post the full video without the edits. What you posted is called sensational media.
Are you too afraid to reveal the truth? Why do you have to edit and hide behind a false video?
College Republicans shouldn’t ask for government handouts. Get a job and raise the money, hippies! It’s not like the event is banned. Plus, Horowitz has already disrespected this campus and others multiple times and students shouldn’t have money taken away from legitimate stuff to fund a guy that brings nothing to the table but fearmongering and hate speech.
Also, the “oh, I’m an oppressed straight white man in America” act is the silliness and most flawed argument known to humanity. And that’s coming from one.
I am extreamly familiar with the workings of leg council, how the budget becomes impacted around this time in spring, and the history of bringing speakers like David Horowitz to campus. There are a few misconceptions I would like to address- firstly that A.S. has a 9 million dollar budget to allocate to student groups- thats simply not true. The 9.8 million dollar A.S. budget is broken down by lock-ins to certain causes ( like program board) by vote of the students. Finance Board, at the start of spring quarter, might have 120K to work with, and by this time… Read more »