UPDATE: Following a public outcry over the decision to ban College Republicans from hosting events on campus for an entire year, UC Irvine officials have decided to restore the group’s access to campus event space — pending the outcome of the group’s appeal of the initial one-year ban.
Original story:
Officials the University of California, Irvine have effectively banned the school’s College Republicans from hosting large events on campus through the spring of 2017 after the group hosted controversial commentator Milo Yiannopoulos at an event earlier this month.
College Fix reports that campus officials imposed the ban after learning that the College Republicans were planning to invite Milo back to speak at another group-sponsored event this fall. The group’s previous Milo event on June 2 was fairly controversial, even by Milo’s standards.
The firebrand provocateur marched into the venue wearing a sleeveless police uniform, complete with a bright pink “penis gun” holstered at the hip, and carrying a nightstick and a studded leash attached to another student wearing a Donald Trump mask. Milo, a Trump supporter, often refers to the candidate as “Daddy.” He then proceeded to jokingly spank another student wearing an Obama mask.
UC Irvine chancellor Howard Gillman, on the other hand, is not a fan of Trump. He sent a campus-wide email late last year condemning the candidate’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration as “so offensive that I feel I should speak out.”
A campus spokeswoman told College Fix the sanction, which applies to the ability of College Republicans to book event space through the school’s student center, was the result of the group’s failure to provide proof of insurance for Milo’s private security team prior to the event on June 2.
The vice president of the College Republicans described the university’s actions as another example of the school’s “horrendous record of protecting the rights of conservative students,” and said the ban was only handed down after campus officials were informed of the group’s decision to invite Milo to speak again in the fall.
Here is the full video from Milo’s June 2 event at UC Irvine: