Free speech controversy spreads to Stanford
Campus group invited controversial co-founder of Stop Islamization of America to speak on campus
The free speech debates that have rocked UC Berkeley in recent months appear to be making their way across the bay to Stanford.
Stanford College Republicans have invited Robert Spencer, the controversial co-founder of the group Stop Islamization of America, to speak on campus next Tuesday, Nov. 14. And they plan to use university money to host the event.
That revelation has sparked backlash from students who say they don’t want the Associated Students of Stanford University, which funds campus student groups, backing an Islamophobic speaker, setting off accusations from conservative students that some at the school are trying to limit free speech.
“We reject all attempts to curtail freedom of speech on this campus, especially with respect to an issue as salient as international security,” Stanford College Republicans wrote in The Stanford Review. “Furthermore, we will not let the fact that some students take exception to Mr. Spencer’s views stop us from providing an important educational experi--
ence to the Stanford community, while also starting an important discussion.”
Universities funding controversial speakers isn’t necessarily unusual— UC Berkeley agreed to foot the bill for a speaking venue when Berkeley College Republicans invited conservative commentator Ben Shapiro to campus earlier this year — but colleges’ policies have come under intense scrutiny in recent months as free speech debates have intensified.
Spencer, whose writing was cited by Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who killed more than 70 people in 2011, has argued that Islam is a violent religion and that radical jihadists who perpetrate terrorism are just following its teachings. In 2013, the United Kingdom banned him from entering the country after he announced plans to attend a rally organized by an antiMuslim extremist group.
The club, which called Spencer’s professional credentials “stellar” in the Stanford Review piece, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For his part, Spencer said that “forcibly suppressing
the speech of someone with whom one disagrees is a quintessentially fascist act.”
“What are the students so afraid of? Why are they so desperate that dissenting voices not be allowed to be heard?” Spencer wrote in an email. “I have never called for or endorsed any violence and have spoken all over the world with no violence ensuing except when it was done to me.”
Spencer Brown, a spokesman for the Young America’s Foundation, which has a history of bringing controversial speakers to college campuses, including Shapiro to UC Berkeley, confirmed that his group is also backing the Spencer event at Stanford.
Now, some students at the school are circulating a petition online calling on the ASSU to defund the speech.
“A few days ago, the Undergraduate Senate approved an appropriation to the Stanford Republicans to bring the Islamaphobe Robert Spencer to campus,” reads the petition, which had garnered nearly a thousand signatures by Wednesday afternoon. “While we respect the Stanford Republican’s free speech and right to hold this event, there is no reason we should all be complicit by having our student fees go to pay for the event expenses.”
“I feel that by funding the
event, we implicitly support the event’s message,” said Caleb Smith, the student who started the petition, adding that he does think the club should be allowed to bring Spencer to campus, just without university funding.
It is unclear exactly how the Stanford College Republicans plan to spend ASSU money.
The ASSU criticized the club for hosting Spencer but said itwas committed to upholding free speech on campus. The group funds more than 500 student organizations, including various political and religious groups. Several members of the ASSU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We can’t freeze the funding,” Doris Rodriguez, a student senator, told the school’s student newspaper, “but have the right to request a refund on student fees to the ASSU if you feel like your voice is being ignored. But that has implications, because that would be taking funds from other student groups.”
The university, which has the final say on campus events, released a lengthy statement affirming that “freedom of inquiry and the free expression of ideas are fundamental to themission of the university.” (In the 1990s, a speech code at Stanford was found to be in violation of what’s known as the Leonard Law, which prevents private universities from restricting student speech protected under the First Amendment.)
“The event is funded through multiple sources: the ASSU, Stanford College Republicans and the university,” campus spokesman Ernest Miranda wrote in an email. “We do not discuss security.”
Miranda did not immediately respond to a question on how it was funding the event.
The controversy mirrors recent debates at other campuses across the country, including at UC Berkeley, where protests erupted after College Republicans and another conservative student group, Berkeley Patriot, invited right-wing speakers, including right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and anti-Islam speaker Pamela Gellar (who works with Spencer) to speak, ultimately costing the school more than $2 million in security fees.
“Spending student fees in this manner,” Smith said, “does not seem to be an appropriate use of student money.”