An event featuring conservative commentator David Horowitz has been canceled by the Berkely College Republicans allegedly over administration attempts to restrict the lecture event.
Members of the Berkeley College Republicans announced the cancellation of their scheduled event with conservative commentator David Horowitz, citing issues with an administration that reportedly sought to restrict the event.
“Administrators have banned Horowitz from speaking on the campus proper and have assigned him a facility half a mile away,” a press release from the David Horowitz Freedom Center claimed. “Administrators insisted Horowitz could speak only at 1PM when afternoon classes are starting and most students would have difficulty attending.”
The release adds that the campus administration has “taken a page out of Orwell.”
Members of the Berkeley College Republicans claim that administrations did everything in their power to minimize awareness of the event.
Despite these claims, campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof denied the allegations, arguing that the time and location of the event had nothing to do with Horowitz’s political beliefs.
“This (time and location of the event) has absolutely nothing to do with the views or perspectives of the speaker. This has absolutely nothing to do with the identity of the student group,” Mogulof said. “This is solely about providing safety and security for those who want to attend, those who want to lawfully protest and for the speaker.”
In an email to Breitbart News, Horowitz claimed that forcing the students to hold the event at 1 PM and half a mile from campus led to only 30 students signing up to attend, which ultimately led to the event being canceled.
“Requiring the time to be 1PM when afternoon classes were starting and requiring the venue to be a half mile away led to only 30 students registering for the lecture,” he stated. “The university also required that only registered students be allowed to attend. Then two days before the event the University told the CRs they would have to pay $5788 security charges, and $2000 for use of the room, a half mile away.”
The practice of security-fee censorship, which has been written about extensively at Breitbart News, involves imposing unreasonable security fees upon student groups, typically shortly before an event is scheduled to take place.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com
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