The Evening Bulletin - UCLA Has Feet Held to the FIRE
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The Evening Bulletin - UCLA Has Feet Held To The FIRE http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=18150318&BRD=273... Subscribe | Contact Us | Advertise Independent and Locally Owned in Philadelphia NEWS CLASSIFIEDS SPORTS YELLOW PAGES WEATHER COMMENTARY TO SUBSCRIBE CALL Cloudy 62° 1-866-261-8650 Advanced News Search 215-735-9150 Friday, March 30, 2007 OR CLICK ON Enter Search Words Last 30 days 6 GO SUBSCRIBE TODAY'S NEWS HOME UCLA Has Feet Held To The FIRE HOME By: Joe Murray, The Bulletin THE BULLETIN IS HIRING 03/30/2007 FOR... Email to a friend Post a Comment Printer-friendly LOWER MERION SCHOOL DISTRICT By JOE MURRAY COMMENTARY The Bulletin JOE MURRAY: THE RIGHT When most people think of TIME Advertisement college campuses, they think of HERB DENENBERG: THE robust debate, intense ADVOCATE discussion, and the occasional JIM MCCAFFREY'S LOCAL emotional rant. It's college, and BEAT students are paying a steep DAVID BEDEIN: MIDEAST price tag to have their beliefs REPORTER challenged and their minds NEWS- JENNY DEHUFF exercised. With such an understanding in SCOUTWISE PROGRAM mind, a student group at the MICHAEL P. TREMOGLIE University of California Los TALKS Angeles (UCLA) thought it HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS would be informative and SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA entertaining to host an immigration debate on campus. ARTS AND CULTURE The thought was not wild, as ZAP2IT MOVIE TIME IN the kids at UCLA were merely YOUR AREA mimicking the 67 percent of LETTERS TO THE EDITOR American people that told CNN they believe the number of immigrants must be EMAIL LETTER TO reduced and the issue addressed. PUBLISHER Thus, a UCLA student group - Liberty, Objectivity, Greed, Individualism, Capitalism (L.O.G.I.C) - invited two prominent speakers to come to the sunny FROM THE PUBLISHER California campus and engage in an intellectual battle of wits. It did not take long THE ENTREPRENEUR for Carl Braun, Executive Director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of ASK THE ATTORNEY California, and open borders advocate Yaron Brook, President of the Ayn Rand WHERE TO BUY THE Institute, to accept the invitations. BULLETIN It appeared all was well in the Golden State and the debate was scheduled for February 6. But looks can be deceiving. BUSINESS AND INVESTING Two days prior to the debate, UCLA's Student for a Democratic Society (SDS) PERSONAL FINANCE decided to mobilize its troops to shut down L.O.G.I.C.'s immigration debate. SDS REPORTS posted an online bulletin calling on students to "say no to hate" and to "come tell TOP FINANCE NEWS the Minutemen they are not welcome at UCLA's campus." SDS is not a group INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS officially recognized by UCLA. SDS urged protesters to bring "banners, noisemakers, bullhorns, whatever," to PAT BARRON: ECONOMICS shout down "the Minutemen and the racist agenda they promote." SDS made it CAL THOMAS' POLITICS clear that they did not want the Minutemen on campus. JOSEPH PUDER ON MIDDLE According to Arthur Lechtholz,-Zey, leader of L.O.G.I.C., one protester posted a EAST comment encouraging UCLA students to "do what they did at Columbia and shut it DANIEL PIPES: ON MIDDLE down." The comment was referring to the disruption of a speech delivered by Jim EAST Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, at Columbia University, in which the speech was disrupted and violence erupted. PA TOWN HALL LINK While SDS was stirring the political pot on campus, UCLA administrators were LINCOLN INSTITUTE LINK getting cold feet and were fearful that the disruption experience at Columbia was THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION coming to their doorstep. Thus, on February 5, administrators told Lechtholz-Zey LINK that L.O.G.I.C. would have to pay security costs if the debate was to be held. TIMCHAPMANBLOG.COM UCLA demanded that an additional 46 security guards be hired to patrol inside the theater and the surrounding grounds while the debate was being held. UCLA COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION LINK further told L.O.G.I.C. that the student group had to bear the cost of the additional guards, which was estimated at an additional $12,000 to $15,000. FOUNDATION FOR PA L.O.G.I.C. could not afford the astronomical amount, was forced to cancel the FUTURE LINK debate, and contacted the Philadelphia- based Foundation for Individual Rights in GRASS ROOTS PA LINK Education (FIRE). CLUB FOR GROWTH LINK "A public university cannot penalize students financially for hosting a controversial event," stated Greg Lukianoff, president of FIRE. MIKE FOLMER LINK 1 of 2 3/30/2007 4:56 PM The Evening Bulletin - UCLA Has Feet Held To The FIRE http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=18150318&BRD=273... PROMISE TO PENNSYLVANIA FIRE immediately sprung into action and wrote UCLA, urging them to reconsider LINK their position that L.O.G.I.C. be forced to pay upwards of $15,000 prior to hosting RUSS DIAMOND FOR GOV. this debate. LINK In a letter written to Norman Abrams, Acting Chancellor of UCLA, FIRE argued, PHILADELPHIA FORWARD "UCLA's stated requirement that student organizations hosting controversial LINK events pay for extra security is clearly unconstitutional, as it affixes a price tag to COMMENTS BY ROSEMARY events based upon their expressive content." MCDONOUGH To support its contention, the civil rights organization pointed to Forsyth County v. CYNTHIA NIMERICHTER: Nationalist Movement, a U.S. Supreme Court case that held a Forsyth County, MARRIAGE Georgia ordinance that tied fee costs to the anticipated need for security unconstitutional. ESSAYS BY MARY FRAN BONTEMPO In explaining why such an ordinance was unconstitutional, Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the court, reasoned, "[t]he fee assessed will depend on the MEDICAL REPORTS administrator's measure of the amount of hostility likely to be created by the DOM GIORDANO'S GET speech based on its content. Those wishing to express views unpopular with bottle SCHOOLED throwers, for example, may have to pay more for their permit." Hence, FIRE C.J. MITTICA ON LOCAL argued that UCLA's requirement was no different than the Forsyth ordinance. SPORTS FIRE also warned UCLA that the university was traveling down a troubling path, BULLETIN SPORTS STAFF for its decision was effectively giving students a heckler's veto that could be used to silence constitutionally-protected speech. SPORTS WORLD In its letter, FIRE explained, "Protestors wishing to shut down speech with which HOT LISTS they disagree merely have to threaten to protest, and student groups not able to BOOKS furnish thousands of dollars will be forced to cancel their events. As happened CLASSIFIEDS with L.O.G.I.C.'s planned debate, disruptive protests win out over responsible expressive activity." DISPLAY ADS After its feet were held to the fire, Chancellor Abrams wrote FIRE and reversed the HOROSCOPES/CROSSWORD decision requiring L.O.G.I.C. to bear the $15,000 additional security costs. PUZZLES Abrams wrote that UCLA "understands its obligation to bear the reasonable WEATHER security costs relating to demonstrations that might result in response to controversial speech. It was not appropriate for campus representatives to YELLOW PAGES suggest that the student group would be obligated to pay for additional security THE ROCHFORD FILES OF needs because of a protest that was anticipated." SOCIETY With the burdensome security costs removed from its shoulders, L.O.G.I.C. has COMMUNITY CALENDAR rescheduled the debate for May 1 and the group is looking forward to a successful COMMUNITY WEBSITES event. Lukianoff, after receiving news of UCLA's decision, stated, "UCLA's change of heart KRYSTLE MARCELLUS PHOTOGRAPHY was crucial; after all, if a debate at a university can effectively be shut down by threats from those who want to prevent vital issues from even being discussed, JARED GRUENWALD where in America is it safe to debate the pressing issues of the day?" PHOTOGRAPHY This, however, is not the end of the free speech road for UCLA. The folks at FIRE BULLET LIST are asking UCLA to use this incident as a learning experience and have urged the campus to develop a policy that would prevent such constitutional infractions from SUBSCRIBE...... repeating. CONTACT US..... "Thankfully, UCLA has recognized that it cannot allow the most disruptive ADVERTISE...... members of the community to shut down speech with which they disagree simply by threatening violent protest," stated Robert Shibley, Vice President of FIRE. "FIRE is now calling on UCLA to develop a clear, permanent policy so that this will never happen again." Joe Murray can be reached at [email protected] ©The Evening Bulletin 2007 Email to a friend Post a Comment Printer-friendly Top Subscribe | Contact Us | Advertise NEWS CLASSIFIEDS SPORTS YELLOW PAGES WEATHER COMMENTARY Send us your community news, events, letters to the editor and other suggestions. Now, you can submit birth, wedding and engagement announcements online too! Copyright © 1995 - 2007 Townnews.com All Rights Reserved. 2 of 2 3/30/2007 4:56 PM.