The chaos continues on the California State University – Los Angeles campus following conservative author and Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro’s Feb. 25 speech on “when diversity becomes a problem.” The school’s student association, Associated Students, Inc. (ASI), gave an official vote of “no confidence” in the university’s president, calling for his resignation.
CSULA President William Covino has come under fire from social justice activists for his handling of Shapiro’s conservative speech, which the students say was an event that should not have been allowed to proceed because it posed a “safety” concern for the “diverse” campus.
Just three days before the Young Americans for Freedom-sponsored speech, President Covino announced that it was canceled, calling for a more “inclusive event,” suggesting it wasn’t fair that Shapiro should be allowed to speak without other perspectives also presented to students. After Shapiro declared in no uncertain terms that he was coming anyway, Covino eventually relented, allowing the YAF student group to hold the event in an auditorium.
Outside, student activists attempted to bar any students from entering the event, with some protesters getting violent, as The Daily Wire chronicled. Though the only recorded violence was against those trying to attend the event, CSULA students staged a #CovinoResign rally demanding President Covino’s resignation for failing to adequately protect them.
“We believe Covino needs to answer for the conditions he put students under. To cancel the event due to concerns over audience diversity is one thing, but this [Shapiro event] was a safety issue,” said rally participant and Philosophy graduate student Bree Lacey. “There was serious negligence where security was needed and that’s what we are protesting. We don’t expect a rhetorician [Shapiro] to have the well-being of students in mind; however, we do expect that of our administration, and in particular our president.”
At the student association vote Thursday March 3, the board voted for the removal of Covino as well as the head of the school’s public safety department, Rick Wall. Two other administrators whose fate the student government voted on, Vice Presidents Dr. Jose Gomez and Nancy Wada-McKee, ended up being spared by the students.
Though ASI gave several reasons for their overwhelming vote against Covino, it was clearly the Shapiro incident that moved them to take action against him. “We were left vulnerable and then you don’t show up to make sure we are okay,” one student complained.
Here’s the school’s paper summarizing some of the other charges against Covino, including temporarily canceling a sex toy event:
Illustrating the long history of lingering tensions between President Covino and ASI, which began in the summer of 2015 with a budget refusal of ASI’s draft by Covino, then later on going on to freeze their budget over a dispute between increased funding of Anna Bing Children’s Center. The list includes constant disregard of student voices, false counseling to ASI by an administration paid lawyer, and a pattern of cancelling student-organized events mere days, sometimes hours, before its scheduled.
One example referenced by Anthropology student Jose Trinidad Castaneda was the cancellation of the Sex Toys R Us event held last spring quarter where a concerned mother of a high school student called to complain of the event, which was immediately cancelled by President Covino. The cancelling of the event, an LGBTQ sexual education seminar, soon sparked anger from students who held a rally for its speedy renewal that successfully occurred.
In his statement against Covino, Castaneda cited what he called the president’s “pattern” of limiting free speech as part of the problem. Ironically, it was precisely the limiting of free speech that the activists who opposed Shapiro’s talk were trying to accomplish.
The university paper reports that the “no confidence” vote was passed with an “overwhelming majority” of the board.
The next step is for the school’s faculty-composed Academic Senate to make its recommendation to the Chancellor, the only one with the authority to fire presidents. Meanwhile, as the #CovinoResign rally made clear, outraged students are hoping Covino takes himself out of the equation.
Since Shapiro’s “unsafe” speech, President Covino has been trying to play damage control. He recently issued a statement calling on student leaders to “move forward.”
“As I noted on Thursday, there have been unfortunate misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the University’s decisions and priorities, which are focused on student success, safety, and wellbeing,” Covino wrote in an email. “Moving forward we will continue to work with student leaders for the benefit of the University community.”