The State College Borough Council has joined a long list of local officials and organizations in criticizing an upcoming event that will bring controversial speakers to Penn State’s campus.
At Monday night’s meeting, council voted unanimously to endorse a letter expressing concerns about a student-organized event on Oct. 24 that will feature Gavin McInnes, founder of the far-right Proud Boys organization. The group is designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, and the Anti-Defamation League classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with a violent agenda.
In the letter, council President Jesse Barlow wrote that the Proud Boys event stands in opposition to the borough’s values.
“Consistent with our community’s values of tolerance, diversity, inclusion, and justice, the Borough of State College condemns the message and intent of the Proud Boys event at Penn State,” Barlow wrote to Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi on behalf of council. “We deeply value the diversity in our communities at Penn State and in State College.”
For more than 40 minutes on Monday, council discussed the letter and heard public comments urging the inclusion of stronger, more critical language. Evan Myers, former council president, said community members should not remain neutral bystanders when oppressive figures come to town.
“I believe it’s imperative this council issue a strong statement of condemnation not only of his appearance but, in my mind, Penn State’s complicity in this event,” Myers said. “In this case, they are not taking a firm stand. They’re afraid. The Proud Boys’ leader says he will be presenting his appearance as comedy, but there is nothing funny about this advocacy of hate…I urge you to issue the strongest statement possible. Ask yourself this question tonight: If you lived in Germany in the 1930s, what would you have done?”
Uncensored America, the Penn State student organization hosting the event, branded McInnes’ appearance along with far-right media figure Alex Stein as a “comedy show.” But speakers at Monday night’s council meeting argued the Proud Boys’ history of violence and hate speech is particularly troubling. The organization was largely present at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, for example, and played a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Individually, McInnes was banned from platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for promoting hate speech and extremist violence.
Penn State officials said they are in an “unenviable position of sharing space with individuals whose views differ dramatically” from the values of the university, adding it would take reasonable precautions to protect the safety of those associated with these activities. However, citing First Amendment rights, the university said it cannot intervene to prevent the event from occurring on campus.
“While the past statements and actions of these speakers are alarming and can elicit strong reactions from our community, we must continue to uphold the right to free speech — even speech we find abhorrent — because Penn State fully supports the fundamental right of free speech,” a statement from three university administrators said. “To do otherwise not only violates the Constitution but would erode the basic freedom each of us shares to think and express ourselves as we wish.”
Council member Gopal Balachandran, an assistant professor of clinical law at Penn State, offered some general legal insight during Monday’s meeting, though he noted his expertise is not in First Amendment law. Citing recommendations from the American Civil Liberties Union, Balachandran said schools that allow students to use campus resources to entertain guests cannot withdraw those resources “simply because students have invited a controversial speaker to campus.”
Balachandran also noted that Penn State did not directly “cut a check” for McInnes’ appearance. Instead, the University Park Allocation Committee, a student-run organization, independently chose to fund the event using student activity fee dollars. At its Sept. 6 meeting, UPAC approved a $7,522 budget that would cover the event’s costs, including McInnes’ airfare. In the meeting’s notes, a member wrote that “it is important as Penn State has a diverse range of thoughts (no matter the disagreements).”
Although Balachandran said his expertise on such a case is limited, he concluded that Penn State’s hands may be tied.
“The university has a general counsel office to review all of this. I suspect that they probably have no grounds to be able to really prevent the Proud Boys from entering [campus],” Balachandran said. “So, in that sense, I’m not sure that the letter…It could be stated somewhat strongly, but I really don’t know if the university could’ve done much more than this.”
Terry Williams, the borough’s solicitor, reminded council that the decision to allow such an event on campus is solely the university’s.
“You have no way of attempting to enforce them to not do it,” Williams told council. “Certainly you can express whatever dismay you have and encourage the university to pull the plug, but you really don’t have much teeth in that because it’s not a borough issue.”
Mayor Ezra Nanes, who presides over council but does not vote, cited similar legal frustrations.
“I feel the way everybody in this room feels about this. I want this not to happen, and yet I’ve been told the law protects this and allows it to happen,” Nanes said. “I am not a lawyer, so I can’t speak to that. This is what we’re dealing with right now. We condemn this event, and the letter says that, and we’re affirming the actions that have been taken. We would like to see more done. That’s what we’re stuck with.”
Following public comment, council entertained possibly rewriting Barlow’s letter, though he would not commit to finishing it before the event’s Oct. 24 date. Ultimately, council unanimously chose to move forward with Barlow’s original draft while adding the following statement as an appendix:
“Our community has spoken very strongly on this matter, condemning the event and calling for action to stop the event. We would like to refer you to the public comment period during this council meeting,” the added statement read.
Nanes agreed with council and said the borough would work to add a link to the statement directing readers to recordings of Monday night’s public comment period. The borough does not maintain those video recordings and would need to seek permission from CNET.
More than 2,200 people have already signed an online petition urging Penn State to cancel Oct. 24’s speaking event.
Uncensored America’s speaking event is titled “Stand Back & Stand By” as a reference to Donald Trump’s reaction to condemning white supremacist groups in 2020. It will begin at 8 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 24, in the Thomas Building on Penn State’s campus.
Flyers around Penn State’s campus say the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity will host a protest outside the Thomas Building starting at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 24.
On-campus programming will run concurrently to Oct. 24’s speaking event. A free lecture at 6 p.m. in the HUB-Robeson Center Freeman Auditorium will examine the importance of truth in journalism, while a Student Programming Association event will feature music, food, activities and student performances to celebrate diversity from 6 to 10 p.m. in the HUB’s Alumni Hall.
In 2021, Penn State similarly responded to controversial speaker Milo Yiannopoulos with a “Love is Louder” protest. Again, the university noted it would not prevent lecturers from speaking on campus. UPAC funded Yiannopoulos’s event with nearly $18,000 in student fees.
