The University of California system spent over $800,000 on legal fees during a court battle with a student-led satirical newspaper that came under fire in 2016 when it mocked “safe spaces.” The ACLU filed a lawsuit in 2016 against the University of California over its decision to strip the student newspaper of its university funding. This week, public records revealed that the university spent far more on fighting its students in court than it would have spent if it had simply funded the paper.
According to a report by The College Fix, the University of California system spent over $800,000 on legal fees during a court battle with a student-led newspaper. The newspaper stirred controversy in 2016 when it criticized “safe spaces.” The case was settled in August for $12,000 and $150,000 in legal fees.
The Koala, a satirical student newspaper at the University of California, San Diego, sued the university in 2016 when it was stripped of its funding by the university. In response to an outcry over an article about “safe spaces,” the university announced that it would strip all student newspapers of their university funding.
In a statement released last week, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) said that the university spent 1,820 times more on legal fees compared to what it would have spent on funding for The Koala.
“That means that defending the “creative legal solution” — that is, censorship — cost the University of California system at least $824,317.86,” the statement reads. “For those keeping track at home, that’s just north of 1,820 times the amount of money The Koala was denied under the unconstitutional funding change.”
Breitbart News reported in June that a group of students at UC San Diego demanded that they receive passing grades because they were stressed out by the ongoing social unrest in cities around the nation that followed the death of George Floyd.
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