The University of Colorado Boulder “will not be cancelling Milo’s event” at the college in January despite pressure and a petition from left-wing students.
“Mr. Nash: We read your story today about Milo’s visit to the University of Colorado Boulder campus on Jan. 25,” a representative of the university relayed to Breitbart Tech. “We noticed there were not any quotes from the university’s perspective. And we just wanted to inform you that our administration will not be canceling Milo’s event.”
“It will go on as planned,” they continued. “We value free speech and respect our student organizations’ decisions on who they want to invite to events at our campus.”
The university also linked Breitbart Tech to two statements made by college chancellor Philip P. DiStefano.
“Personally, I feel strongly that discrimination and harassment have no place on our campus,” said DiStefano. “With that said, we must support the free exchange of ideas. I would hope that any speaker who comes here can present his or her opinions in a respectful manner. We understand that some topics will be supported by some students and denounced by others. Hosting a speaker on campus does not mean the university endorses or has other viewpoints on that speaker’s message.”
On Wednesday, Breitbart Tech reported on a petition that was started by left-wing students at The University of Colorado Boulder, after it reached over 1,400 signatures following calls on the chancellor to ban MILO’s event from taking place.
“Yiannopolous is not a journalist according to any respectable definition of that word; he is a racist, sexist, reactionary opportunist who makes a comfortable living off sensationalism,” claimed Charles Wofford, who started the petition. “To deny him the privilege of speaking at our esteemed university is not to infringe on his (or anyone’s) freedom of speech. And deny him the privilege of speaking at our university is exactly what we ought to do.”
“The purpose of this petition is to get CU Chancellor Philip DiStefano to stand up to bullying and hateful rhetoric, and to stand up for all of the students of CU,” he continued. “It is to get Chancellor DiStefano to revoke the invitation for Yiannopolous to speak at CU Boulder.”
Unlike other universities who have pulled numerous tricks and tactics in order to prevent MILO from speaking at the college, The University of Colorado Boulder claims to be committed to freedom of speech and political diversity, and as such will allow MILO’s event to go on.
MILO is set to speak at CU Boulder on January 25th 2017 as one of the final shows in his Dangerous Faggot tour around US colleges.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.