Chancellor Holden Thorp has offered to reimburse the student group Youth for Western Civilization for the cost of bringing a controversial speaker, who cut his talk short after a protest got out of hand in April.
The group brought former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., to campus to speak about his views on illegal immigration.
Tancredo ended his talk after roughly five minutes when someone broke a window. The talk was already delayed by protesters. The incident drew national attention.
Nikhil Patel, president of UNC’s chapter of YWC, said the money will be used to bring former U.S. Treasurer Bay Buchanan to speak on campus in October.
Buchanan spoke at UNC in March to a much smaller crowd and less notice than the other two YWC-hosted speakers.
The reimbursement will come from the Chancellor’s Discretionary Fund, which is made up mostly of private gifts and donations.
Thorp originally offered the reimbursement to last year’s YWC president, Riley Matheson, who has since graduated. The offer was mentioned again to the group’s new faculty adviser, Elliot Cramer, a retired psychology professor.
“I thought the chancellor was very generous,” Cramer said. “I think he felt a moral obligation.”
Senior Haley Koch, who was arrested for the protest of Tancredo’s speech, thinks differently. The case against her was later dismissed.
“It’s ridiculous and reprehensible, though not surprising,” she said. “I hope the administration is thinking very carefully.”
Thorp said that he would offer no more than $3,000, that the group must show him receipts and that the speaker must already be lined up.
“What I won’t do is just send three grand over to do whatever,” he said.
Thorp added that he made the offer because he felt the University was partially responsible for allowing the protest to get out of control.
“I felt that we didn’t do the best job we could have at maintaining order,” he said. “If we had done a better job, Tom Tancredo could have given his talk and the protesters could have expressed themselves.”
Cramer said the Chancellor told him he’s confident the University will be ready the next time YWC hosts a speaker.
“I feel pretty confident that there will be a protest,” Koch said. “We’ll just have to be more creative.”
A conservative public policy group, The Leadership Institute, funded two of YWC’s campus events with up to $3,000 per speaker. As of June, they have funded two other YWC speeches at other schools.
The story so far
March 19: Former U.S. Treasurer Bay Buchanan speaks about illegal immigration with little fanfare. She is the first speaker brought to campus by conservative group Youth for Western Civilization.
April 14: Former U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., an ardent opponent of illegal immigration, speaks on the subject in Bingham Hall. More than 30 protesters show up to oppose the subject and are broken up by police after they say the protest got out of hand. Five minutes into the speech, a window is broken, and Tancredo ends the speech and leaves campus.
April 22: Police arrest senior Haley Koch for her role in the protest. Another protest of a YWC-sponsored talk on immigration by former U.S. Congressman Virgil Goode leads to the arrest of six people, but no UNC students.
Summer: YWC’s faculty adviser Chris Clemens resigns due to the group’s negative perception.
Monday: Koch and three of the other protesters have their cases dismissed. One protester is found not guilty, and the other two are fined. YWC also renews its official student organization status, with professor emeritus Elliot Cramer as adviser.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
