Professors at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) are proposing designating staff members as “sanctuary faculty” in order to “support students who are distressed,” the school’s student paper reported.
In response to UCSB’s Associated Students granting the campus College Republicans $5,000 to host Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro last week, left-wing students mobilized to protest his rhetoric as “hate speech.” Now, faculty members are joining in controversy.
Approximately 40 professors, graduate students, and staff members gathered Wednesday to discuss whether it was worth banning Shapiro from speaking at UCSB.
“Sometimes, we’re making sure we’re not giving up a right that we’re gonna want back later,” Margaret Klawunn, vice chancellor of student affairs at UCSB, said, regarding the College Republicans’ First Amendment rights.
“The conversation was heavily in favor of the minority students and allies who gathered at an A.S. Senate meeting two weeks ago to oppose the College Republicans event,” The Daily Nexus described.
The professors proposed creating a list of “sanctuary” faculty members available to help students who feel distressed because of Shapiro’s speech, which they pointed out could promote “hateful rhetoric and violence,” presumably, that of protesters who are angry with Shapiro’s talks. At a forum discussing Shapiro’s event last week, one UCSB student complained Shapiro was making black students unable to focus in class because they were busy protesting his event.
The idea of “sanctuary” faculty follows a week-long post-election trend of universities and colleges making their campuses “sanctuary cities” which would safeguard illegal immigrants from potentially receiving any less support or protection under a new Trump administration. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and other University of California campuses are gearing up toward becoming “sanctuary cities” as well, UCLA’s student paper announced last night.
A.S. Executive Director Marisela Marquez said, students who did not want Shapiro to speak on campus should get a refund on their student fees. The Compulsory Fee Refund Application was brought up in conversation, which would allow students to withdraw their portion of student funding from programs that they do not agree with ideologically.
Andrew Gates, president of the College Republicans, said this ruling was only being suggested by administrators now because of the influence of left-leaning campus groups, which host thousands of events on campus each year and likely never give refunds to conservative UCSB students.
“We have, what, one event per quarter? But if you divide 5,000 by 23,000 students … compare that with the countless left-leaning events that you know all the conservative students could, like, get a refund for,” Gates said.
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