Conservative students at Stanford University are crying foul after the Undergraduate Senate cited safety concerns in refusing funding for a planned speaking event with former Vice President Mike Pence.
The Stanford College Republicans had requested $6,000 to host a February lecture by the former vice president but found its request denied by the Undergraduate Senate.
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An anonymous senator told the Stanford Daily that “student safety, freedom of speech, and COVID-19 protocols” were considered in the razor-thin 7-6 vote to decline the requested funds.
The Stanford Daily reported that in an email last month, the Undergraduate Senate had acknowledged that denying the Stanford College Republicans’s funding request “based solely on our disdain for the speaker would set a dangerous precedent that could hurt other communities on campus in the future.”
Stephen Sills, a member of the Stanford College Republicans, told the Stanford Daily that the roadblocks would not dissuade the organization from hosting Pence next year and attempts to stop the event are “completely futile.”
“Stanford leftists are still dedicated to preventing their fellow students from hearing conservative ideas,” Sills told the Young America’s Foundation. “Every grant this fall quarter was approved — except our Standard Grant for hosting Vice President Mike Pence. If this funding request had been for a leftist speaker, our grant would have been approved without a hitch. Our grant was rejected explicitly because our speaker was a conservative.”
The club plans to pursue an appeal to the Constitutional Council, claiming the funding rejection violates the Undergraduate Senate’s own rules. Furthermore, university rules require that events needing security must secure over 50% of funding from on-campus sources.
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The Undergraduate Senate and the Stanford College Republicans have previously feuded over funding for conservative speakers. In 2019, the Undergraduate Senate initially blocked funding for an event with filmmaker and conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza before eventually acquiescing.
