Washington State University has demanded a $2,000 fee from the university’s Republican group hosting MILO’s talk next month. Student organizers allege that this is an attempt to torpedo the event.
The WSU Republicans told Breitbart that the university administration have demanded they provide more than four private security staff, rent “cattle style barricades to protect the stage,” as well as three hours worth of police protection.
The group also said they were told by the university’s security team that they would not seek to protect Yiannopoulos should an agitator rush the stage, as was seen at DePaul University earlier this year.
They also claimed that the university selectively enforces a policy of students covering security, having previously deployed security personnel for a rally held by students calling for the protection of the status of illegal immigrant students following the election of Donald Trump.
In a statement to Breitbart News, Washington State University said that the group had not initiated security discussions early enough, and that “security requirements at campus events are quite common.”
“Security for university-sponsored events is provided by the university and, as with sporting events, is often provided by both WSUPD and an outside crowd security vendor. If security is required for a student-group sponsored event, the cost of that security is borne by the sponsoring organization,” they said.
Responding to allegations that the university would not protect Yiannopoulos should protestors crash the stage, they cited “recent legislation by the Washington State Legislature [that] has designated the WSU CUB as a campus free speech area.”
“Protesting, per se, is not necessarily precluded in a free speech zone. Crowd control tactics are employed at the discretion of the WSU police officers and are not dictated by the promoters of events,” they added.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com
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