After paying conservative speaker, questions linger, answers are sparse
Following up on “Admin at MTU subverts student self-governance”
A week after Michigan Tech’s University Administration overruled a decision of the Undergraduate Student Government(USG), students are still asking questions, but answers from university decision-makers are sparse. Even university faculty and staff who agree that the decision had to be overruled have criticized the ‘punitive’ nature of USG’s ‘emergency meeting’ and dispute its educational merit.
Friday before last (Feb. 17), Michigan Tech administration issued a memorandum forcing the USG to immediately disburse funding to pay conservative speaker Brandon Tatum after the funding request failed to reach the two-thirds threshold a second time.
Campus has been quieter this past week compared to the frenzy of social media, petitions, and public comments the week prior, but student groups have continued working to make their voices heard.
Keweenaw Youth for Climate Action (KYCA), a ‘primarily student-based’ organization registered with the University, released a “Statement on the recent USG meetings and institutional failure” on their instagram account shortly after USG’s ‘emergency meeting’.
It is apparent that the administration themselves did not want to take responsibility of the situation. Instead they attempted to ‘teach’ Michigan Tech students that they should lay down both their morals and principles out of fear of being sued by a highly controversial organization. [...] The result was opening a public rift amongst members and constituents of USG, causing members of USG to lose faith in the institution and opening MTU’s marginalized community to the possibility of more bigotry.
Keweenaw Pride (KP), the University’s LGBTQIA+ and Straight Ally organization, delivered a letter to the USG Friday afternoon thanking representatives and staff for their “tremendous courage” in voting no on funding “a speaker with a history of transphobia, homophobia, and bigotry.”
The letter went on to state that “This vote has been a major success for our community at this university, despite being overturned by administration. We again thank you all for your actions and your willingness to listen to our stories and concerns, despite the emotional toll it may have placed on each of you.”
President of Michigan Tech’s TPUSA chapter Caleb Glenn did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.
TPUSA at MTU posted on their Twitter account Monday evening (Feb. 20).
After the student government refused to fund our event, we fought back. The money will now be allocated by admin @michigantech Thank you @theofficertatum @charliekirk11 and everyone who helped us! Hope to see you at BE BRAVE with Brandon Tatum on March 21st 7pm Fisher 135 MTU 🇺🇸
Michigan Tech’s University Marketing and Communications (UMC) department provided the following comment in regard to whether or not the USG was obligated to fund all speakers hosted on campus.
Because USG is allocating fees charged to all students at a public institution of higher education, they cannot do so in contravention of the First Amendment. They can make many other decisions, though. For example, they could decide not to fund any speakers in the future or they could decide to cap spending on speakers at a set amount per group each year. The boundary conditions on their actions are those listed in Board Policy 7.6 from which their authority originates.
All attempts to arrange interviews with university employees and representatives were referred to UMC.
Copper Beacon talked to several concerned students involved with minority-centered organizations. Parts of their identities have been withheld out of consideration for their safety.
Andrew, a second year student, had this to say about the decision to override the USG.
“I understand that they don’t want to get hit with a lawsuit, however I feel there are things that are more important [...] like showing to your trans[gender] students that you care about their safety.”
A student who requested to be identified only as a first year, when asked if the university ‘considers student safety’ in making decisions stated, “They don’t particularly prioritize that, they more seem to prioritize not only the amount of students [...] but also the funding they get for the university.”
A student, who requested to be identified as a queer second year, when asked if in their experience Michigan Tech had been one of an inclusive campus emphatically stated, “They certainly pretend to be. [...] I feel like administration could definitely do a much better job at making sure that queer students are not harassed on campus.”
The student also offered an anecdote of earlier grievances they’d tried to rectify with the university. In the past, when messages from a student organization’s chat room leaked, they were shown to have hate speech directed at their friends.
“And I reported it to the university and there was nothing to be done besides like ‘it’s free speech, can’t do anything about it’,” they said.
Student voices were not alone in expressing concerns regarding the decision of University Administration.
Lindsey Wells, chair of the University Senate Committee for Promoting and Facilitating Equity and Understanding, offered an excerpt of a message sent to some faculty members.
We believe the forced emergency meeting to be punitive, not educational. It should have been obvious to all involved that the vote would not change, and we don’t agree with making students share their stories again, when it would have ultimately no impact on the result.
Copper Beacon secured a brief interview with Wallace Southerland, the Dean of Students, Wednesday evening as he was delivering pizza to USG’s weekly meeting.
Wallace Southerland, Michigan Tech’s Dean of Students. Photo by JuxtaPrax Sprague.
Speaking to the determination by the administration that USG had made a decision based on the “content” of the speaker, Southerland said, “I didn’t hear anything that would lead me to believe that an objective set of criteria was used.”
When asked what attempts were made to verify student claims made about Brandon Tatum, Southerland responded,
“I did a very brief, cursory search of the internet that night to see what I could find, because I wanted to be informed. I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t a clear record out there where the speaker incited violence, and from the very few clips that I looked at, I didn’t see anything that caused me to fear for student safety.”
In regard to a hypothetical scenario where a speaker advocated for violence against members of Michigan Tech’s campus, Southerland stated,
“We will always protect our student’s safety and if a speaker has done anything that results in students being harmed, there will be an investigation into that. We will refer to our campus police, we will refer to legal counsel, we will refer to state laws to find out if the speaker or the organization violated any laws or policies.”
The first meeting of Michigan Tech’s Board of Trustees (BOT) occurred Feb. 24. There was no mention of the incident with USG. After the meeting, Copper Beacon unsuccessfully attempted to solicit comment from two members of the Board of Trustees.