A Conservative Student Union forum involving Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist set to take place Monday in the Beach Auditorium was cancelled after the student organization failed to pay facility fees, Cal State Long Beach officials said.
This has been the second time that the event has been cancelled because of failure to pay University Student Union (USU) fees. The forum, set to discuss the topic of “La Raza and Racism,” was originally scheduled for late November.
Jason Aula, the president of the Conservative Student Union, said the student organization refused to pay the facility fees to use the Beach Auditorium for the November event, calling them “unfair” and a violation of First Amendment rights.
“I don’t know of any other groups having to pay these fees,” Aula said after the November event had been cancelled, “and if administration does not correct the situation, we will be forced to pursue legal action.”
However, Scott Christopherson-Schorn, the associate director for facility operations, said the fees were “all standard charges” and “anything any other group would have had to pay for for a similar event.”
Fees for the event scheduled for November were said to total $1,200, a sum the USU cut down $600 after Aula said they would have trouble paying the fees. USU officials arrived at the sum after considering the costs to pay extra staff that would be needed for crowd control.
USU officials said they felt the extra staff would be necessary after large numbers of protestors came to Gilchrist’s previous on-campus appearance in fall 2007.
Christopher-Scorn said Aula, University Police and Student Life and Development met Dec. 1 to discuss the fees and event details, and that Aula was told the deadline for payment.
Members from the La Raza Student Association, as well as various campus groups including the Women’s Studies Student Association (WSSA), said they were planning to not attend the event.
After last year’s protest against Gilchrist, La Raza decided that their organization did not want to give the speaker any further media attention.
Professor Armando Vasquez-Ramos of the Chicano/Latino Studies Department said that last year’s protest against Gilchrist, where much of the audience emptied out of the auditorium soon after opening introductions, was a well-organized success and that Gilchrist and his supporters have skewed views of what La Raza stands for.
“They want to start conflict, that’s why La Raza and no one in the faculty are going to protest [this time],” said Vasquez-Ramos.”To say that La Raza is a racist organization is so far-fetched. It is totally untrue.”
Eddie Moreno, a Latino Student Union representative, agreed that the best way to deal with Gilchrist was to ignore him.
“We, the members of La Raza Association agreed to ignore the message of ignorance and focus on the more productive things like the Budget Cut Rally,” said Moreno.
Aula said he still believes the USU should not charge fees for events meant for student audiences, and hopes they will drop the required fees when he reschedules the event for the spring.
Here’s a story idea: Compare how many times Jason Aula has been quoted along the lines of saying, “I’m gonna sue,” to how many times he actually has pursued any course of legal action. Then add up the amount of non-cases he has on his track record.
Lastly, quote his reaction after it’s explained to him that the First Amendment does not grant him rights to free usage of CSULB’s Beach Auditorium. His mug on that could win awards.