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For Immediate Release
June 21, 2016
Contact: UCI College Republicans President
Ariana Rowlands aerowlan@uci.edu
UC Irvine Suspends College Republicans at UCI for a Year for Hosting Gay Conservative Speaker, Milo Yiannopoulos
UCI administrators requested to meet with Ariana Rowlands, College Republicans at UCI’s President, under the guise of debriefing the planning process of the College Republicans at UCI (CRUCI) hosted event, “Social Justice is Cancer by Milo Yiannopoulos” which took place on June 2nd. Only hours after the conclusion of that meeting CRUCI execs were emailed by a UCI administrator from the UCI Student Center, informing the club almost a full month after the event but 4 hours after meeting with administration, that not only is CRUCI suspended for the concluded Spring 2016 quarter, but the next three quarters as well (a full academic year at UCI). The cited reason is that CRUCI failed to provide a certificate of insurance for the private security hired for the event to protect Yiannopoulos. Contrary to the statement released by UCI, the news reports are accurate, CRUCI is suspended for a whole year from booking rooms for meetings and or events, effectively rendering the club obsolete in purpose. This suspension means that CRUCI can no longer hold meetings, can no longer reserve rooms for or plan events, and as those are the only functions of the club it means that CRUCI can effectively no longer function as a club on campus in any capacity.
“In accordance with the “COMPLIANCE” section of the contract, failure to provide insurance for service providers is a level II infraction. As you were notified several times during the booking process that insurance was required for any service provider including a professional videographer or off-campus security provider. Failure to comply with these warnings results in immediate suspension of the group for the remainder of the current quarter (Spring 2016) and the following three quarters. This means your organization would not be able to book meetings or events again with Student Center & Event Services until Spring 2017.”- Michael Pulli, UCI Student Center Certified Meeting Professional
CRUCI hosted Jewish conservative pundit David Horowtiz earlier in the Spring quarter, Horowtiz required private security, but the club was never asked to provide an insurance certificate, nor was the club penalized for not having provided one. The email claims that Robert Petrosyan, CRUCI chairman emeritus was warned three times of having to provide a security insurance certificate, but UCI Student Services cannot provide documentation for any of these warnings. Petrosyan says he was only told one time, the day before the event, and not told of the urgency or importance of the certificate, nor the consequences of not providing one. The administrators did not release a list of approved outside security, as promised, until after the deadline for submitting an insurance certificate, making it impossible to submit the certificate by the deadline, had CRUCI known of the necessity of doing so.
On the day of the event itself, UCI tried to intimidate CRUCI by imposing a $1,000 extra fee for the event under the false claim that CRUCI was hosting the event with a non-UCI organization. The charge was removed after being contested.
“Cowards at UC Irvine say College Republicans not banned, they just can’t hold events for a year. That’s all they do! What’s the difference? Typical, pathetic slipperiness from social justice-infested college authorities who can’t win with the facts. It’s like ‘Islam isn’t banned, but you can’t force women to wear the hijab or kill gays’. What’s the point? ‘Black Lives Matter isn’t banned, but you can’t throw tantrums, destroy stuff, destroy stuff, tell lies or spread conspiracy theories’. ‘Feminism isn’t banned but you can’t hate men, spread bogus statistics, get fat or pierce your septum’.” – Milo Yiannopoulos
“UCI administration has recently claimed that our club is not suspended, and is merely barred from holding meetings and reserving rooms. However, as with any other club, our function is to meet and exercise our freedom of assembly, so such a suspension is an act of least resistance, they have banned our club from operating to save themselves the trouble of dealing with opposing views and immature leftist protesters. It is obvious that this is an attempt to prevent our club from hosting Milo Yiannopoulos again in the Fall, but neither our group, nor our members and supporters intend to back down from this attack on free speech and expression.”- Robert Petrosyan, CRUCI Chairman Emeritus
“This blatant display of bias against the University of California-Irvine College Republicans is a shameful violation of these students’ civil liberties. Our nation’s universities, and particularly those that are taxpayer funded, ought to be places where a diversity of thought finds a comfortable home, rather than where unaccountable bureaucrats unfairly malign students based on a certain agenda.”- Alex Smith, College Republican National Committee Chairwoman
“Freedom of speech is an extraordinary right that requires extraordinary vigilance to uphold. We must do everything possible at our universities to allow for the exchange of all political ideas, even those that may shock and offend, and allow for rebuttal to those ideas through civil debate. One’s politics aside, it is without doubt that the College Republicans represent a significant voice in this debate, and their suspension, on what appears to be a technicality, should be met with great skepticism and concern.” – Jonathan Keeperman, Faculty Member, UCI Department of English
Breitbart: UC Irvine has Suspended College Republicans for a Year Following Milo Event: http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/06/21/irvine-republicans-suspended-punishment-milo-talk/
The Blaze: UC Irvine Punishes College Republicans for Paperwork Mix Up: http://reason.com/blog/2016/06/21/uc-irvine-punishes-college-republicans-a
UC Irvine statement on College Republicans: https://news.uci.edu/uncategorized/uci-college-republicans-statement/
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