A&M spent $300K to draw attention from alt-right speaker
When Richard Spencer came in ’16, A&M held an ‘Aggies United’ event.
Seventeen thousand dollars on T-shirts. Eleven thousand dollars for flashing LED bracelets. Sixty thousand dollars for big-name musicians and a string quartet. Nine thousand five hundred dollars for an “expression wall” that event attendees could draw on.
Texas A&M University officials decided it was worth paying those costs and more to divert attention from a controversial speaker’s visit to campus in December 2016.
While lawmakers and campus administrators agree that protecting free speech on college campuses is essential, doing that can be expensive for schools. Take A&M. When a self-described leader of the “alt-right” movement, Richard Spencer, came to the College Station campus that year, A&M held an “Aggies United” event that filled the university’s football stadium with musical acts and feel-good speeches.
The cost of that three-hour rally? Around $299,000 — or nearly $100,000 an hour.
“Knowing that the world would be watching this event at Texas A&M University created the challenge of allowing open dialogue