Hot take: my school banned a speaker on both sides of the same issue in one week, and now nobody knows what the rules are | College Speaker Controversies - Discusd
Hot take: my school banned a speaker on both sides of the same issue in one week, and now nobody knows what the rules are
Two weeks ago in Akron, our student group got a pro-life speaker blocked on Tuesday and a pro-choice speaker blocked on Thursday, and both denials cited the same vague 'safety' policy. Is that a sign admin just doesn't want any controversy, or did our group mess up by not pushing back on the first one?
Pushed back on the first one and it actually worked for us. We asked for the policy in writing, like the exact wording, and when they sent it over it said nothing about topic bans, just time place and manner stuff. Once we had that in email they couldn't keep hiding behind "safety" for every single speaker, so the second denial got walked back. Your group probably didn't mess up, the admin just counts on nobody asking questions the first time. Get the policy in writing and make them point to the line that applies, that's the whole game.