Nearly $18,000 in Penn State student fees will be used to bring controversial far-right political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos to campus on Wednesday.
According to records from the student-run University Park Allocation Committee, $17,934.80 in student fees will fund Yiannopoulos’s speaking event, which is organized by student organization Uncensored America. The group says it works to give “people on both sides” the chance to speak and hear others.
At Uncensored America’s presentation before UPAC on Sept. 21, presenters Sean Semanko and Luca Miraldi said Yiannopoulos’s lecture, taglined “Pray The Gay Away,” would bring a new perspective to campus.
“He has been kicked off multiple social media platforms, so we think it would be beneficial to hear what happened from his perspective,” they said. “On a college campus, you have an opportunity to hear all kinds of voices. We want to bring in opposing viewpoints to challenge how students think while promoting diversity and inclusion.”
UPAC unanimously voted to distribute the student fee funding as an honorarium. It won’t cover lodging, travel, equipment, or facility rental, according to UPAC’s records.
In a statement last week, UPAC leadership said the committee is required to remain viewpoint neutral and doesn’t “explicitly share” Yiannopoulos’s views.
“All viewpoints, including those that are controversial, must have an equal chance of receiving funding,” UPAC’s statement read.
The statement later added, however, that “the nature of [Yiannopoulos’s] commentary is both highly offensive and dangerous to a community that too often faces discrimination. It is our goal to facilitate a safe and welcoming environment for all students at Penn State and we understand how this program contradicts those efforts. We will continue to explore ways in which the policies to which we adhere meet the values we hold as an allocating body and provide equal opportunity to all students.”
Penn State’s student fee is a $265 per student, per semester charge that helps fund organizations and events across campus. UPAC received $4,178,500 in its 2021-22 allocation — a $50,000 increase from the 2020-21 academic year.
Although students are eligible for free tickets to Yiannopoulos’s event, more exclusive tickets are available as well. Students can pay up to $55 for “royalty” tickets that come with front-row seating and a meet-and-greet opportunity.
Penn State administrators published a statement last week condemning Yiannopoulos’s history but reiterating that it won’t prevent a student organization from bringing him to campus.
“As a public university, we are fundamentally and unalterably obligated under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment to protect various expressive rights, even for those whose viewpoints offend our basic institutional values. To do otherwise not only violates the Constitution but would undermine the basic freedom each of us shares to generally think and express ourselves as we wish,” the university said. “A public university cannot impose the risks of censorship on those whose viewpoints it does not like without equally risking censorship for all, including those viewpoints it strongly endorses.”
Penn State’s Coalition for a Just University, an independent faculty group, said the university’s refusal to prohibit Yiannopoulos’s appearance is a “specious” interpretation of the right to free speech.
“The First Amendment prohibits government interference in the expression of controversial views,” a CJU statement said. “It does not require universities to provide a platform for a speaker who has a history of verbal attacks on LGBTQ+ people, women, Muslims, and many other groups — especially when the speaker is receiving an $18,000 honorarium (funded by student fees), and the organizers of the event are charging admission for non-student members of the public and those desiring VIP access to the speaker.”
Other groups and individuals, including U.S. Senator Bob Casey, the State College Borough Council, and Penn State’s student government, issued similar statements discouraging the event.
So far, nearly 12,000 people have signed a Change.org petition urging Penn State to uninvite Yiannopoulos from campus.
Penn State’s Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity will host a “Love is Louder” event on Wednesday in opposition to Yiannopoulos’s appearance. The event will take place from 6 to 10 p.m. , in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Heritage Hall. It will feature music, food and activities to “inspire love and community within the Penn State student body,” according to event organizers.
StateCollege.com’s Geoff Rushton contributed to this report.
