UCI students petition to cancel Sunday’s speech by conservative speaker

UC Irvine students are asking the university to cancel Sunday’s appearance by a controversial conservative speaker who sparked an outcry last time he was on campus.

Opposed students are signing an online petition seeking to nix the College Republicans-sponsored speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, technology editor for right-leaning website Breitbart.com.

A message on a change.org petition, which had received more than 1,000 signatures by Friday afternoon, said: “As you can see, this event will be filled with hate … rooted in exploitation of non-white bodies … Milo’s event at this campus in the past [has] perpetuated violence against people of color …”

The petition asks Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Thomas Parham to call off what would be the second visit by Yiannopoulos in about five months.

“We’re a public institution that’s committed to upholding constitutionally protected rights of free speech,” Parham said. “While we recognize the right of free speech, what we will not be neutral about is when we see the humanity of our university assaulted by narrative that we think is vulgar and inappropriate. That we will speak out on.”

UCI administration and police will be prepared for the event in the Crystal Cove Auditorium, Parham said.

The College Republicans have been promoting Yiannopoulos’ visit, held at UCI’s Crystal Cove Auditorium, on their Facebook page, asking guests to wear their “most hilarious, most offensive, most culturally ‘appropriative’ costume” to the event, which takes place the day before Halloween.

“In an outrage culture you fight by being outrageous,” said Ariana Rowlands, club president. “Halloween is a time for celebration, and people should not be afraid to dress as what they want to.”

Yiannopoulos’s last trip to UCI in early June sparked hours of protest from students and a line of more than 500 people hoping to hear him speak in a social sciences building. A crowd of about 200 listened to his critiques on topics like feminism, which he called “cancerous,” and white privilege, which he argues “doesn’t exist.”

In late June, the university released a statement saying that due to a policy violation related to the private security hired to protect Yiannopoulos during his visit, the College Republicans’ room-booking privileges for club meetings and events would be revoked until spring 2017. The student club was not being removed or suspended.

The university said the club was told before the event that it would need to provide proof of insurance if a private security firm were brought in and the club failed to do so.

Robert Petrosyan, the club’s chairman emeritus, said he was not told of the importance of the insurance certificate or the consequences of not providing one, according to a College Republicans news release.

But the club’s room-booking restrictions were eventually lifted, Parham said.

“They were out of compliance according to our particular rules, but because I determined that we were to hold a group accountable for something that was a little less than clear on paper, it was on that technically that I decided to lift their suspension on rooms,” Parham said. “I warned them that any further desire to book things would have to comply strictly with the requirements.”