“No federal funds?”
That was President Trump’s threat, via Twitter, when he saw what was happening at the University of California at Berkeley days after his inauguration. Far-left protesters had created havoc to prevent a far-right internet troll from giving a speech on the famously liberal campus.
For Berkeley, it was a nightmare upon a nightmare. The fracas had started with one uninvited guest, the provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, and had blown up when many more arrived — anarchists who were determined to make the campus too unsafe for him to speak.
Right-wing firebrands have become popular choices for student groups trying to make a splash on campus, and that has put colleges in a hard position. Intervene, and they risk a free-speech lawsuit. Back off, and they risk either a raucous protest or having to shell out big bucks to cover the extra security costs. For the speakers, that is a win-win.
In the year since the anti-Yiannopoulos chaos, Berkeley has walked both gantlets. In April, a pair of conservative organizations sued the university for canceling a planned speech by the conservative flamethrower Ann Coulter. Then, in October, Yiannopoulos returned for a series of planned talks he called “Free Speech Week.” The event was a dud, but the university still had to pay $800,000 for security — not with federal money, but from its own pockets.
Some colleges have tried to pass on the extra security costs to the students who invited the speaker, but that might be illegal. A federal judge recently granted an injunction against the University of Washington for telling College Republicans there to pay $17,000 to secure a “free-speech rally” it had organized on campus.
Whatever the final ruling, that case could set the tone for how colleges approach the problem of high-risk speakers in the coming year, says Ari Z. Cohn, a lawyer with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a free-speech advocacy group. In any case, there will probably be more lawsuits. Colleges may roll the dice on a legal argument that unwanted guests create an unreasonable financial burden on the host, he says.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see a university try to argue that in court,” says Cohn, “saying, Where’s a balance? If something’s going to cost more than our budget, are we still legally obligated to pay for it?”
Amy M. Hass, general counsel for the University of Florida, says many colleges are trying to figure out their way around the high costs of free speech. The university reportedly spent more than $600,000 on security during a speech there last fall by the white nationalist Richard Spencer. Kent Fuchs, the president, suggested in a subsequent Wall Street Journal op-ed that everybody who books a campus venue could pay into an account to be used on security when necessary. The university is not sure that method would raise enough money.
Florida has been weighing the possibility of requiring some high-profile events to be held in “virtual” spaces, says Hass. The idea is to give any speaker a platform to speak to students while sparing everyone the cost of securing a physical space on campus. And Florida is not alone. “I know that other universities are exploring the legality of that,” she says.
Colleges might also make fewer spaces on campus available for rent by outsiders, which might at least eliminate the risks posed by the most extreme speakers.
“Richard Spencer is having his henchmen go out and reserve spaces as a member of the general public,” says Cohn. “The speakers you see College Republicans inviting, the Ben Shapiros and the Milo Yiannopouloses, are, frankly, relatively milquetoast in comparison.”
Cohn paused to consider the notion that Yiannopoulos, a flamboyant troll who has been banned or disowned by even the most libertine benefactors, could be considered milquetoast by any standard.
“I cannot believe those words just came out of my mouth.”
Steve Kolowich writes about ordinary people in extraordinary times, and extraordinary people in ordinary times. Follow him on Twitter @stevekolowich, or write to him at steve.kolowich@chronicle.com.
