TIL my campus speaker policy was way stricter than I thought

So I tried to set up a talk last semester at U of I about media bias and the student activities office told me I needed to submit the speaker's name 30 days in advance for review. I was just gonna have a local journalist come in and chat with like 10 people in a classroom. The guy at the desk said it was for "campus safety" but honestly it felt like they were screening for any topic they didnt like. I pushed back and asked what would happen if I just posted flyers without the approval. He basically said I'd get a conduct violation and maybe lose my club funding. That was a wake up call - I ended up moving the whole thing off campus to a coffee shop on Green Street. Has anyone else run into a similar rule at their school that seemed like it was meant to shut down conversations?

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1 Comment

harperwright1mo ago

I used to roll my eyes at people who said campus speaker policies were about controlling speech, but after hearing this, I get it now. Moving it off campus seems like the only real move to avoid ridiculous red tape.