Wednesday, November 22, 2017



Free Speech Isn't Free: Rioters are Costing College Campuses Millions

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
When Charles Murray or Milo Yiannopoulos visit a college campus, administrators don’t just worry about the effect that inflammatory speech might have on their students. They aren’t only concerned about being swept up in the higher education free speech debate, or playing host to a scandal that could taint their school’s reputation for months.

 There’s also the cost — which can climb into the millions of dollars.

Colleges, especially public colleges, often shell out enormous amounts of money to provide additional layers of security when controversial speakers visit. If schools are lucky, contentious events will go smoothly. If they aren’t, there could be violent protests, injuries, campus damage and weeks of negative press coverage.

University of California at Berkeley, a historic flashpoint for the free speech debate rooted back to the 1960s, has spent at least $2.5 million on security surrounding controversial speakers since February, says Dan Mogulof, the school’s assistant vice chancellor for public affairs.

That’s $200,000 for Yiannopoulos in February, $600,000 for Ann Coulter (whose appearance was ultimately cancelled by the sponsoring student groups), and at least $600,000 for conservative commentator Ben Shapiro in September. Yiannopoulos’ latest appearance, part of Berkeley’s “Free Speech Week,”will cost upwards of a $1 million, Mogulof estimates.

The University California system even chipped in, covering at least $300,000 of the costs associated with Free Speech Week.

At Berkeley, preparing for a speaker event is a serious undertaking — the university police department painstakingly gathers intelligence before an event, then makes recommendations to the administration for what kind of security might be necessary. Minor considerations — like whether the event is scheduled for daytime or evening, and how many exits the venue has — play a key role in shaping the security plan.

“Universities like Berkeley — public universities, particularly with the demographics that we have and the kind of campus climates we foster — represent for many people on a certain part of the political spectrum everything that’s wrong with the country,” Mogulof says. “You spring that all together, and you’re going to get a lot of attention. And a lot of what these folks want more than anything is attention.”

SOURCE

5 comments:

Bird of Paradise said...

Arrst all the rioters fine them $2000 each and then fine the riot instigators(Sharpton,BLM,NBPP,Calypso Louie,ANTIFA,ETC)a whopping one million bucks start with George Soros

Anonymous said...

All the violence and protests from the peace loving group the says "Love Trumps Hate" They are still butt-hurt their idol Hillary lost. Anyone who doesn't Praise Hillary is obviously a racist misogynistic enemy.

Spurwing Plover the Fighting Shorebird said...

And we saw their nationwide temper tantrums a year ago and more recent Spoiled Little Snots Need to Soak their Heads

Bill R. said...

To pile on to Bird of Paradise's post, in addition to the fines, expel them from their respective schools with no chance of ever coming back.

Stymphalian Bird the man eating bird witha brass beak and shoots his feathers said...

The fake peace makers they release a vulture instead of a dove