Students voice anger over panel featuring Bristol Palin
Matt Mitgang | Student LifeJunior Ryan McCombe speaks out against Bristol Palin's selection as keynote speaker for Sexual Responsibility Week at Wednesday night's Student Union Senate meeting. Students were jammed against the walls of the filled room as senators and discontented students voiced anger, suggestions and occasionally support for the panel.
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Students seeking an outlet for frustrations over Student Union Treasury’s decision to fund a panel featuring Bristol Palin for $20,000, made their voices heard in Wednesday’s session of the Senate.
In a room filled to capacity, senators and discontented students voiced anger, suggestions and occasionally support for the panel.
Freshmen Gabriel Hassler and Michael Harding waved a sign that read “Can I get paid for an accident too?”
As news outlets from the Huffington Post to Fox covered the story of Palin’s potential position in the Sexual Responsibility Week speaker lineup, students formed Facebook groups and an online petition in protest. A Facebook group titled “No thanks, Bristol” organized by the Wash. U. College Democrats had over 750 members by Wednesday night.
Matt Mitgang | Student LifeFreshmen Michael Hurding and Gabriel Hassler hold up a sign protesting Bristol Palin at Wednesday night's Student Union Senate meeting.
While students at the meeting explored various possible avenues for canceling the speech, none ended successfully.
A student petition with five percent of the student body, or 302 undergraduates, calling for an appeal would ensure a referendum vote. Due a stipulation in SU’s Constitution, however, the referendum could take place no earlier than Feb. 6th. Palin’s speech is set to take place Feb. 7th.
A referendum vote against the panel would only have an effect if the contract were not yet cemented. While Palin has not yet agreed to speak on campus, SU members argued against the petition since any agreed upon contract would be signed more than a day prior to her appearance.
While one student suggested that SU President Morgan DeBaun veto the funding using executive privilege, her veto does not extend to allocations.
A final proposal, introduced by senior Benjamin Reiter, involved the recall of all seven affirmative Treasury votes. Junior Betel Ezaz, a senator, called the solution disrespectful to Treasury members who were advocating for those students in support of Palin and killed the proposal. Ezaz added that the anger over Bristol Palin’s speech was unwarranted.
“I’m disgusted about the fact that so many people are opposed to her coming because she’s a polarizing figure,” Ezaz said. “She’s going to present her life, that’s it.”
Students plan to continue with the petition, whether or not it may yield any results.
College students across the nation have taken notice of Palin’s possible appearance, and they are adding to student pressure to fight the event.
“I have been getting emails, text messages [and] phone calls from people at universities across the country, laughing at me. Everyone is so riled up about this that there’s not even a point of bringing her here, nobody is going to be able to listen,” junior Ryan McCombe said.
hi http://www.studlife.com-ers happy christmas to every one – matty mays
I hope the leftist members of the student body will not pretend to open minded or tolerant in the future. Bristol Palin was a very public face to teen pregnancy, and an obvious choice to speak on the subject. The students protesting her showed nothing but shallow, petty bigotry that was obviously politically motivated, and nothing at all to do with the event that was planned. They look like fools, and I hope the faculty has the decency to be ashamed at and for them…
The WU openly partnerships with Planned Parenthood.
Doctors at the hospital actually penned a letter to this newspaper saying Palin should be excluded to improve inclusiveness and dialogue! It can be found under the “forum” link.
Your hopes that the leadership or faculty at WU are not thrilled that the SHAC was browbeat into censorship is pretty hopeless. This whole charade has just exposed them. Notice now that suddenly, as if by magic, what Gloria Steinem or Van Jones got paid is not an issue at all in comparison. This was NEVER about the money. And you can safely presume there were faculty telling impressionable young minds to lie to about it being about money as cover.
One of the “doctors” who wrote that letter is now taking Palin’s place. Which, I’m sure, they’ll also try to spin as something other than what it is: A young pro life single mother replaced by an abortionist “doctor” in cahoots with Planned Parenthood.
All of a sudden, as if by magic, Ryan McCombe is completely disinterested in what anyone else gets paid to speak at WU?
Gee, what a surprise..
What was Gloria Steinem paid?
What was Van Jones paid?
What are the other speakers at this event being paid?
Suddenly, these very simple, fair questions seem to be very difficult for anyone at WU to answer, no?
Stupid question.. Aren’t there any more local teen Moms who could come in and share their life stories.. Maybe give one of THEM the 20 grand so they could elevate their lives with it by.. I dunno.. going to school?!
Good question. But the answer is that Palin has been replaced not by anyone in a similar situation or with similar views – but rather with a WU employee from inside their hospital – which just so happens to partner with Planned Parenthood!
See how this crap works?
What are the other speakers being paid?
Has WU made THAT info public?
Has anyone even asked them to?
Likely not. That would force the people who supposedly only concerned about the fee to back track.
Palin was the only paid speaker at the even.
There would be so many better people to have speak, I mean really Bristol Palin came from a very well off life and did not have to struggle like many young people do when pregnant. Yes she was in the media and I’m sure that wasn’t the most pleasant experience but the number of teens and young adults that experience that is minimal at best. I really think the college needs to reevaluate how much they are paying to have an individual speak for maybe an hour, it’s a ridiculous sum and could be spent on something more beneficial.
Only if the other speakers are getting paid nothing, or a tiny fraction of $20,000.. Do you know what any of the other speakers is being paid? Has WU made any of THAT information public? Or only Palin’s fee?
Also, you may want to investigate what life is like for a large family living in Wassilla, Alaska with a dad who works in the fishing industry. They may be well off now to her mom’s recent fame (2 years), but that is a long way from being raised rich. I’d be willing to bet that YOU were raised much richer.
Todd Palin had a job on the North Slope and was a commercial fisherman before this family became tabloid celebrities. Both of those jobs were very lucrative. Don’t fall for her myth of coming from hard scrabble beginnings. Didn’t happen.
I am sure it wasn’t a walk in the park to have her pregnancy mocked, her relationship torn apart, and her mother hung in effigy by the rabid haters on the left.
I’m not a Palin supporter. I’m not even a republican. Nor do I think Bristol should be getting paid any more than anyone else. Was she going to? What is everyone else being paid?
But it’s easy to notice hear that nobody on the right and/or in pro life circles starting frothing at the mouth and jumping up and down because Planned parenthood folks were included on the panel. And they are the ones that Live Action has caught lying to woman and covering up rapes for the past two years now.
It doesn’t seem to me that those that might have supported Palin’s free speech rights and a truly diverse dialogue were in the least bit fearful of having a debate. On the contrary, it is the far left and their PP buddies who always must resort to censorship. That’s obvious. Watch the Youtube video entitled “Planned Parenthood declares war on science.” That might give you some idea as to what they are afraid of, and trying to avoid at all costs in college symposiums like this one at WU.
Good! Better for you to donate to Beck’s Pro-Nazi hate groups! Radical extremists, such as yourself, have no place in academia. If Bristol Palin were Chelsea Clinton, would you be saying the same thing? Hell no. Your arguments, your points – they are all the same as your fellow extremists, and guess what? They continue to be un-original and stale. Can’t you guys come up with anything else to complain about, or are you waiting for one of your Shepherds, like Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, or two-ton Hannity to do it for you? After all, we wouldn’t want any of you burning a calorie while think for yourself, now would we?
Thank You, CJChicago. There are already other alums out there like you.
There will soon be a campaign to deny WU donations until they end their partnership with Planned Parenthood. Time to get back to science over politics. As this half baked controversy has shown – and by that I mean to people nationwide – is how far down that road to nowhere WU has let itself go.
Planned Parenthood is one of the most ethically challenged groups in the country. I was not aware that the university had official association with them. If that is true, then by no means will I contribute to the school in the future.
Thank you, EE92. I was also not aware of it until just recently.
If you Google the following title, you can get more details:
“Washington University Teams With Barnes Hospital to Train Abortion Practitioners”
Plans are already afoot to organize alumni to withhold financial contributions to WU until such time as this program is verifiably canceled at WU. WU need not involve itself with the politics over science crew. Live Action films has done an excellent job exposing the reality of the anti science that PP depends on for sales.
Amazing how the Left constantly preaches about open mindness and tolerance. Yet, they do not put it into practice. For those of you, college kids, who have been indoctrinated to hate by your radical Left wing professors, do you not see the irony of your statements that Palin is being a hypocrite? YOU left wingers are the hypocrites. You preach tolerance, you preach open mindness and the LAST thing you are is either tolerant or open minded to views and people that disagree with your point of views. Liberals=hate, Liberals=intolerance, Liberals=closed minded.
Money? Where was the outrage from these haters when Van Jones a communist, crazy Left wing wacko was paid to speak at WaMu? One thing is certain, as an alumn I have as of today stopped giving donations to this radical university.
I think you are missing the point! Why is a University or an organization that is aasociated with a University willing to spend 20K on a pesron who could NOT show self restarint when having sex? To award this behavior is baffling. They could pick any number of teenage mothers to talk about this. And to think that a person who had a child while a teenageer is somehow knowledgeable on “abstinence” is crazy talk.
They did NOT pick any other young single mothers to take her place. And you don’t know whet her speech was going to say, because WU has silenced her. I got a feeling that panelists more the to the loony left Ivy Tower’s liking are making a buck or two for this..
wow it seem like you the only person that seem to get the point why pay someone to talk about “abstinence” that never practice it and getting rich off the fact that she a unwed mother, how many unwed mother you know can buy a house with no job
reminding so, so many people at WU.. whoops !
I think the haters and the modern day McCarthyists feared something much more personal than merely a speech on abstinence. They feared Bristol bringing her beautiful young baby, showing him to everyone, and reminding oh so, so many people at UVA what they did to their children when they discovered they were pregnant. As in, killed them.
The Killing Lobby fears women like Bristol more than anything, save maybe people knowing about the abortion/preterm birth/birth defects for future children links. To keep sales up, they really need to pound home this notion that a child will ruin your life. And Bristol is a pretty good example, like countless others, that this is just a sales driven fear tactic. I know lots of women who have had serious repurcusions personally from their previous abortions, psychologically and physically. I don’t know a single mother, no matter young she became one, with any such regrets and damage done to her. Indeed, they are all (100%) happy with they decision not to kill their own children.
This half baked “controversy” cooked up by those fearful of free speech, human rights, and medical science was not about abstinence. It was about much more than that. It was about the fear they have of being exposed, and the fear they need to keep instilling in young pregnant women.
There is nothing more than is feared in college campuses today than free speech. Free Speech by individuals who do not align with the Left wing professors who run our universities must be silenced. Kind of sad the state of things. Very sad.
if Bristol was some poor black unwed child I wonder how you would feel about this….why is she the poster child for abstinence? It’s easy raising a child when your mother makes 12 million a year and you make 20K a speech. Please save your comdemnation of people who wish not to promote this fraud of a person!
Gerard, people who may not agree with everything you think do not instantly become “frauds” for doing so. Bristol Palin has some very real world and personal things to say on this subject, obviously. Holly Patterson can’t be invited, because she’s dead now. Sure, have another single mother come and give her the $20,000. But NOTE – WU did NOT do that. That might also have exposed all too many to “hi, look at my wonderful baby. I’m so happy i didn’t have an abortion!”
THAT is what these folks REALLY feared at WU..
are you kidding…bristol just had the child after she neglected to abstain…both bristol’s child and sarah’s are being raised by nanny’s while they speak and dance all over the country…some mothers
We don’t know who is or is not raising who. At least I can admit that. Are you as critical of Mr. Obama for becoming president because he has two daughters of a tender age? I think we can safely presume that his duties as president leave little time for parenting, and these girls probably have about a dozen other people – taxpayer funded – raising them.
I’m guessing this doesn’t raise you ire, however..
IMO Bristol Palin is only a celebrity because she got pregnant while her mother was running for vice president. She can’t speak against about teen pregnancy. It’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. Let’s make a big media frenzy about a teenager who got pregnant. It’s her telling kids not to do as I did, do as I say. Most teen mothers don’t have the Palin money or support to take care of their child. She’s a high school drop out who is suppose to give a speach to young adults who didn’t make the mistake she did. They are in college. I’ve had enough of the Palins. I don’t affliate myself with the Dem or Rep. Paying Bristol any money is rediculous. Money should be given to a charity like fighting cancer. Think about all the people who didn’t get to live long enough to have a family. How about a teen mom who was diagnoised with cancer and died without having a chance to raise the child. The parent of a teen mother who lost their life to cancer would be much more intresting to listen to. I don’t feel any sympathy for Bristol Palin. Why wasn’t she a teen advocate before she made a mistake. I’d learn more from someone who said no and didn’t get pregnant.
Fact 1: Bristol became pregnant well before her mother ran for Vice President.
Fact 2: She is not a highschool drop out she did graduate.
I want to see a recall for the Treasury members who voted for this, as well as for SHAC.
As a alum who is still paying off my student fees with interest and leans conservative, I support the protest. Bristol is the opposite of American exceptionalism we strive for and shouldn’t be rewarded.
Really? So is this the standard that should be held for all speakers? If one person does not think a person is exceptional, they should be denied the speaking engagement?
I find it interesting that family members of conservatives are spoken of in such an intolerant manner form people and organizations that claim to be for tolerance, inclusion, PEACE, and fairness. Why are people such as Chelsea Clinton treated as royalty and anyone with last names like Bush, Palin, Baynor vilified. Families of public figures should be off limits to such hate speach. I’m quite set back by the rhetoric given the so called values of the critics. By the way, I have no criticism of Chelsea Clinton and wish her the best.
can u possibly compare chelsea and bristol?
can u not see why chelsea is a respected young woman and bristol is not?
it has nothing to do with their names and their affiliations.
one is ignorant and the other is well learned and dignified.
what an insult to the wu students!
An insult to the WU alumni like myself is the hatred coming from the left-leaning students on this topic. If Chelsea asked for $20K for this same engagement, there would have not been a single complaint even though she has no right to demand that high of a fee either.
Cjhelsea Clinton did not get pregnant as a teenager, you can’t even compare the two.
Why not invite a teen mom who actually has to feel the consequences. I don’t think Bristol’s experience is typical of teen moms, she had it easy. How many teen moms get to ditch their baby and go on Dancing with the Stars? How many teen moms can buy a house? In cash?
This is in really poor taste.
100% agree
Sarah Palin for president 2012!!!
NOT!!!!
please please please
Wash U gets no more money from me! Period!
I’m betting that a donation from you to the University would be a first anyway.
WTF? Why throw pearls to swine? Why spend good moiney on some skank that can hire a hair stylist, makeup artist and show you that it pays to be sexually irresponsible by raking in thousands in speaking fees? Why not just go to a homeless shelter and look for a real person in dire straits due to irresponsible sex?
I find it wickedly ironic that this story broke the same week WashU parents were informed that the student activity fee will be going up next year. I’d really like to hear the Provost defend this expense.
Oh Bristol Palin is still learning her lesson. To have to come before this nasty crowd of haters. Everyone should feel that kind of Liberal Hate.
Will you people stop talking about liberal hate – it makes you look like a partisan hater yourself. Bristol Palin should not be reaping monetary rewards from the university because of her name. It’s not like she has gone back to school and earned a degree and then came out after careful thought to share her experience with the students. I would be insulted if I were a student and felt taken advantage of by someone who is benefitting from her mother’s notoriety, which btw is in part due to her demonization of liberals.
$20,000 for getting pregnant? You must be kidding!! How about $50,000 for getting drunk and running over a bum? WTF?
Embarrassing. Take that 20k and put it in the Olasov scholarship fund, not into the hands of an irresponsible pseudo celebrity.
-an alum
I’ll bet Bristol and her new boyfriend are abstaining like bunnies as we speak.
For everyone that thinks this is an issue of people not wanting to hear her views solely…tell bristol palin to come for free. I wouldn’t mind if she came for free, much less like i wouldn’t mind if a pregnant high schooler came to talk for free. I don’t care if they are liberal, conservative, anarchist or what not. The main issue has always been the money and lack of qualifications.
For balance, can we give John Edwards 15,000 to give a lecture on fidelity?
As an alum, I am not happy to see that SU funded someone like Bristol Palin when she clearly got the vast majority of the funds allocated to the panel. I am sure a teen mom from St. Louis would have spoken for much less money. Meanwhile the University has received bad coverage from this — see http://wonkette.com/436265/supposedly-elite-university-paying-ged-grad-bristol-palin-to-speak#more-436265
This is almost as bad as the University giving Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree.
But my understanding is that this funding did not come from tuition, but from the student activities fee that students pay. So the outrage that “tuition” covered this is misplaced.
Almost as bad as the university giving Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree? But that probably cost them essentially no money, right? I think your comment lends proof to what I suspect is really going on here – liberal students just don’t like the Palins, and also don’t like the preaching of abstinence. End of story. They’ve largely chosen to couch their complaint in financial terms in hopes of gaining a broader audience, but I think they’d complain nearly as loudly if Bristol was coming for a pittance instead of her actual fee.
Considering the College Republicans are protesting just as much, I doubt it’s a liberal thing. Bringing Bristol Palin insults our intelligence,whether Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative.
Are they? I have not heard of any protest by them, although I have no personal connections. I do see, from this article, that the Facebook group opposing her coming was organized by the College Democrats. I find it very unlikely that the Republicans are as upset as their liberal counterparts, if they are upset at all.
I was at the treasury meeting where the College Dems announced a political union with the College Republicans and WUPR. There are plenty of conservatives that are very upset about the decision, including one of the people quoted in this article.
Unless the political union was announced at Treasury too, this announcement came at a Senate meeting. This Senate meeting was the night AFTER Treasury voted to fund the appeal.
How could a reputable university like Wash U do this? I am totally disappointed and disgusted that they are actually paying this person to speak. What kind of message are we sending to our youth, get pregnant and you will be paid a handsome amount of money to give a talk? What RUBBISH!!!!
I’d be mad too if my college wasted my tuition money on her. I’m sure they could find any other person who got pregnant as a teen and it would have a much better impact on the student body. There was no need to bring Bristol Palin here.
To be clear, this is not about the fact that it’s someone related to Sarah Palin, it’s the fact they the college would spend so much money on someone to come speak. This money could have gone to countless student activities, scholarships, school improvements, and much more. The college made the wrong choice by spending their students’ tuition money in this way.
Why should people who are paying for a college education listen to a high school drop out? They are already more successful than her. They are in college.
If you measure success only in terms of education. Money, power (she is a celebrity of sorts)…even if you hate her, you’ve got to admit she’s doing something right.
Just a note: I didn’t mean that to sound like she’s an ideal person. I’m just saying that she’s clearly used her connections to take care of herself. What I’m really trying to point out is that you can’t measure someone’s success by whether or not they went to college.
Why have there not been recall petitions for the seven Treasury members?
They have clearly acted to egregiously disregard their constituents and have dealt considerable damage to the national reputation of the university and the value of the degrees issued by WUSTL. I for one will never give the school another dime as an alum.
This Treasury has shown its blatant disregard for its constituents in the past, and many SU officers have shown that they feel they are “otherworldly”, and fail to remember that they serve at YOUR pleasure–Not the other way around!
Will someone please start a recall for the Palin 7?
Who knows… They might decide to move to reconsider…
I just don’t understand why SHAC is still pushing for this. 90% of the student body is apparently against it, according to the poll. The petition has already reached enough signatures. The College Dems and Republicans have both united, so this isn’t even a left/right issue. All they would have to do is not have Scott Elman send the contract.
It was really disingenuous to say that the opposition was against her only because she was a polarizing figure. If anything, the opposition was near universal (conservatives and liberals, many SU members included). So I just don’t see why SHAC feels the point to piss off at least 90% of the student body.
I also don’t see why it’s disrespectful to recall the Treasurers. We voted them in. Last time I checked, SU still ran by democratic methods: if you alienate your constituents in such a way, then you absolutely deserve to face the consequences.
For $20,000 we could have gotten a far more qualified conservative speaker, even one on teen pregnancy or abstinence. Nothing in Bristol Palin’s history has suggested she has learned or become more mature from her experience.
I have to disagree with your closing statement. Bristol Palin has learned that she can bilk college students out of thousands of dollars.
and college students have learned that they can milk the government and their parents out of thousands of dollars while they party and drink it away.
We should be holding the members of SHAC directly responsible for this and challenging THEM to not go through with the negotiations and return the money to Treasury to allocated to more appropriate events. Use the petition to convince them, since SU’s process is crappy and seems near impossible to repeal.
I loved how everyone at the Senate meeting who supported bringing B Palin here tried to be post-partisan about it. In some cases it seemed genuine, and in others (Ezaz) it didn’t. Of course their presumption that we only object to her speaking on narrow partisan grounds is unwarranted. I disagree strongly with the choice of Palin, but I wouldn’t mind another conservative speaker who has a more extensive resume or lower fee speaking to us about abstinence, teen pregnancy, etc.
20,000 grand? Are you kidding me? Why is her fame important?
why don’t some of you become adults and learn to listen to other indiviuals points of view issues? This left out cry is honestly so juvenille,so inmature.
Yes, I agree people should be much more nmature about it. This being said, the grammar structure of your second sentence makes me believe it is you who should be more of an adult, and learn how to correctly piece together words. Of course that being said, you would most likely be more on par with American adults by having poor grammar skills. Yeah, I’m bored and felt like t-rollin’.
I’m just pissed that my University is paying her such an exorbitant fee to speak here. There’s a direct link between the money the Wash U receives and the money it gives out. The fact that even one cent of my tuition is going to that hypocrite makes me sick.
I understand why people would have wanted Bristol to come – even I think it could be entertaining at the very least. But $20,000?! That much money is not worth it for someone who I don’t believe to be any “expert” for the panel.
“I’m disgusted about the fact that so many people are opposed to her coming because she’s a polarizing figure,” Ezaz said. “She’s going to present her life, that’s it.”
Is she here to present her life, or to talk about abstinence? I’m pretty sure her son Tripp means she can’t do both.
I think she’s just here to collect $20,000 of your money, actually.
The Palins don’t speak anywhere, even in churches, if they don’t get paid. It’s always about “Show me the Money.”
Clintons, Gores, and countless of other Left wingers do not speak anywhere if it is not for money. Your point is?
Ezaz stated that “She’s going to present her life, that’s it”. I do believe that the media has covered that- for free.
Why is it that we give student govt and activities boards all this money to spend as they please, with little or no control?
Why not at least place a reasonable cap on how much can be spent WITHOUT first obtaining approval from a majority of the campus?
As for Ms. Palin, doesn’t she believe in FREE speech?
I think it’s an appalling waste of hard earned tuition dollars to pay this young woman 20k. I don’t care if she got knocked up or didn’t get knocked up, or how she’s abstinent now. It also doesn’t matter if she is from the left or right to me. This country is so polarized about this two party system. It’s crazy.
My name is Eliot Walker and I am the Vice President of Finance for Student Union. I would like to convey two additional options to ensure that the student body knows every option available to them.
1. A member of Treasury who voted affirmatively towards Bristol Palin previously can motion to rescind at the next Treasury meeting. The next meeting can either be the regularly scheduled meeting next Tuesday, or earlier if an emergency session is called for by the President. This can be completed faster than a referendum.
2. Any student group, or even an individual can appeal for funds to help support a protest. Head to http://su.wustl.edu/individual_appeals if you are an individual unaffiliated with a group. Otherwise, submit a budget appeal as normal through your student group account.
Thanks for this information, Eliot.
In regards to your offer for protest funds, I believe the lack of interest last night was not due to student apathy, but a general policy of disregard when dealing with members of the Palin family. The Palin political and financial machine thrives off of attention, positive or negative. Often, this means that the most effective way to oppose and diffuse their views, statements, and stances is to outright ignore them. Frankly, the most effective protest of all may simply be to not show up. A low turnout the the event would speak even more decisively to student opinion than would countless picket signs. Further, it would demonstrate to SHAC that invective speakers are not equivalent to insightful ones.
Love this statement so much. I’ve repeated the same sentiment so much in the last two days: best case scenario: no one shows up.
if the best way to get the Palin’s to go away is by ignoring them. Why the heck does the media spend so much time talking abou them? why are Left wing political pundits obsessed with attacking the Palins. And why oh why did you even bother to post a comment about the Palins on an article about the Palins? “Love” Liberals, do as they say, not as they do. LOL Does the hypocrisy of your post escape you? LOL