Took a student's advice to invite a controversial YouTuber to speak at our campus forum. Big mistake.

I was on the student events committee last semester at UW Madison and this senior, Alex, kept pushing for us to book this alt-right YouTuber named Marcus Vane. He said the guy would draw a huge crowd and spark real debate, and that banning him would be censorship. We went with it, booked him for October 15th in the student union hall. Day of the event, we had maybe 50 students show up and probably 400 protesters outside. Campus security got overwhelmed, the police had to step in, and two people got arrested in the scuffle. The whole thing cost us $3,000 in extra security fees and the administration basically shut down our committee for the rest of the semester. Alex was nowhere to be found after the event. Has anyone else been burned by listening to a peer who swore a controversial speaker would be worth the trouble?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewh281mo ago

That Alex kid disappearing after the fallout tells you everything you need to know about people who push controversial speakers. They want the drama and the attention but they don't stick around to deal with the real consequences. Next time someone swears a controversial figure will be worth the headache, I'd ask them to put up some of their own money or volunteer to handle the security mess.

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ryan7191mo ago

Can't believe nobody checked on Alex after all that. Dude was front and center when the drama was popping off, but the second things got real he just vanished. That's wild to me honestly. You gotta wonder if he even realized what he was getting into, or if he just liked the spotlight. Either way, leaving everyone else to deal with the fallout is a bad look. How do you even trust someone like that after they ghost like that?