MDFCR say ‘exorbitant’ security costs are ‘censorship’ for event

Salisbury, Md. – The controversial event featuring “white advocate” Jared Taylor, originally postponed in March due to safety concerns cited by Salisbury University, is now planned for April 29th. However, according to the Maryland Federation of College Republicans, the university is deliberately censoring them by charging them an “exorbitant” rate of $3,500, “just for security.”

MDFCR has a GiveSendGo for the event in an effort to raise funds for security costs, which has so far raised about $400.

In a statement to WMDT, Salisbury University said:
“Non-SU-sponsored events hosted by outside organizations on campus are routinely subject to fees for space rental, audio-visual equipment, security, and other associated services as part of the University’s standard rental agreement. Each event is assessed individually for potential security needs, and the lessee is billed based on those needs. As always, the safety of our campus remains our top priority.”

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has written a letter to the university condemning the postponement and is against the high security costs, arguing it violates MDFCR’s right to free speech.

“When a university like Salisbury allows the controversial nature of a speaker to increase the cost to the host, that’s called establishing a heckler’s veto, because what it does is give people who are the most likely to be violent or disruptive hecklers the ability to set the price for having a speaker come and speak,” FIRE Campus Advocacy Special Counsel Robert Shibley said in an interview with WMDT. “And that would be bad for all of us.”

Shibley says FIRE is a non-partisan group founded by a liberal and a conservative, and all speech — no matter how abhorrent — is worth protecting.

“We will defend people regardless of their viewpoint,” he said. “We believe that free speech itself is worth defending and that people need to have the chance to contend with other ideas in that marketplace of ideas that is our democracy.”

Elizabeth Sorensen, a SU freshman and pre-nursing major said an event that has already been postponed because of “that level” of security should mean a pause in choice of speaker.

“If they don’t want to pay that kind of fee, then they should pick somebody that they’re not going to have to worry so much about,” she said.

Nicholas Billheimer is a freshman at SU and a mathematics major and says though he can see the argument that the event is exercising the right to free speech, he does not think it is appropriate to ask people to donate.

“If we’re already hosting them, there’s no point that we should have to pay for it,” he said. “I feel like it’s not that much money, to be honest. And I feel like if they could pay it and it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

The Maryland Federation of College Republicans did not respond to WMDT’s request for comment by the time of publication.