PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania State University leaders and students are speaking out after an announcement that the school would host Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes for a comedy show.
The “Stand Back & Stand By” comedy hour on Oct. 24, featuring McInnes and far-right personality Alex Stein, is being hosted by Uncensored America — the school’s chapter of a conservative student club.
It represents the latest example of a public university landing in hot water, attempting to find a balance honoring freedom of speech, maintaining a safe space for a diverse student body and ensuring safety on campus.
In a September pitch to request funding from student service fees, Uncensored America leaders said the comedy hour would give students “an opportunity to hear different political viewpoints in a funny and entertaining way.”
When asked by funding allocation committee leaders about McInnes’ involvement with the Proud Boys — a far-right white nationalist group — Uncensored America leaders said McInnes had “stepped down and veered away” from the group. But, as reported by HuffPost, McInnes maintains a leadership role with the Proud Boys and has a history of violent and bigoted rhetoric. Students against the event say the affiliations could pose threats to the university, bringing Proud Boys members and supporters of the group to campus en masse.
The event is scheduled to take place in a building that has an auditorium seating about 700. A Q&A session is supposed to take place after. General admission tickets are free, and VIP tickets range from $15 to a sold-out $99 “Royalty” tier that includes dinner with McInnes and Stein.
“‘Free Speech’ does not mean ‘paid speech’ nor does it mean ‘platforming fascists and promoting hateful, meritless disinformation with thousands of student-fee dollars,’” leaders of the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity at Penn State wrote in an online petition with more than 800 signatures. “Penn Staters and their friends oppose fascism, Gavin McInnes, and the manipulative rhetoric of Uncensored America and we do not welcome any of these in the midst of our campus environment — we demand that our university administration stand with us.”
On Tuesday, the school published a statement decrying McInnes and Stein’s “repugnant and denigrating rhetoric.” Still, the statement — signed by the school’s vice president and general counsel, vice president of student affairs, and vice provost of educational equity — says the school leaders’ hands are tied when it comes to stopping the event.
“As a recognized student organization, Uncensored America has the undeniable constitutional right to sponsor this presentation on our campus,” the statement said.
It added, “To be clear, the presence of any speaker on our campuses should not be taken as an endorsement by Penn State, and we can emphatically say that our University neither supports nor condones the vitriolic and hateful language targeting particular groups that has been used by these speakers in the past.”
According to the students’ pitch, the event will cost $7,522.43 of student service fees, the bulk of which is being used to pay an honorarium fee. The speakers’ airfare and hotel will also be covered.
Security fees and needs have not been mentioned by school leadership or Uncensored America. In the club’s event pitch, leaders said they requested school security and officer presence.
Penn State’s student affairs vice president, Damon Sims, told HuffPost that the school would “respond appropriately as circumstances require.”
Earlier this year, when Penn State’s Uncensored America hosted an on-campus debate about the war in Ukraine between Elijah Schaffer, a conservative news writer for the Blaze, and Steven “Destiny” Bonnell, a political commentator and YouTube personality, the university attempted to stick the student group with $1,800 in security fees after the fact for five campus police officers working security at the event.
The university eventually rescinded the invoice after FIRE — the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — said that the fees were a violation of the students’ First Amendment rights because they allowed a perceived audience reaction to dictate the price of hosting an event.
It’s not McInnes’ first time drawing ire at a college campus.
In 2017, he was hit with pepper spray and fights erupted on campus at New York University, cutting his speaking engagement with the NYU College Republicans short.
That same year, DePaul University leaders canceled McInnes’ speaking engagement at the Chicago private school for being “too dangerous.”
Locally, Penn State’s Uncensored America hosted the controversial alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos in 2021. Yiannopoulos made false claims about the LGBTQ community during his presentation. The event was condemned by university officials, student organizations, and the State College Borough Council. According to WPSU, about 200 students protested outside the auditorium, and others attended a “Love Is Louder” competing event.
Countering this month’s comedy hour, two competing events will take place: a community event focusing on creating a safe space for students and a public lecture centered on media literacy and distinguishing “truth from false propaganda.” Another lecture about groups like the Proud Boys will take place before the event.
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