UT President Jim Davis said the University is reviewing its policies on outside speakers, according to a Friday email, following concerns about a conservative podcaster’s campus presence nine days after the event.
The podcaster, Myron Gaines, debated students outside of Gregory Gym and used multiple derogatory terms and slurs in his arguments. The event was shut down by a UTPD officer but his comments drew widespread criticism from students who said the University should not have allowed Gaines to speak.
In the email, Davis wrote that the University will work with student leaders and take action on current policy based on feedback. The University declined to comment further on the prospective changes.
Davis also wrote that the University does not have the ability to cancel a student group’s event due to a speaker they bring “even when many and nearly all of us find the speech offensive and wrong,” according to the email.
The debate was in partnership with student organization Uncensored America, an organization “focused on promoting free speech, open debate, and the exchange of controversial or unpopular ideas on college campuses,” according to the UT chapter’s Hornslink. University policy allows groups to invite outside speakers to nondesignated areas, including Speedway and Gregory Gym.
“As always, we will follow the law and do what it takes to keep you and the campus safe,” Davis said. “We have no tolerance for behavior that breaks our rules or breaks the law, recognizing behavior and speech are not the same thing.”
In Davis’ email, he said “outsiders” who have been on campus are allowed to speak, sometimes saying “vile and abhorrent things,” because they are invited by UT student groups. In the email, he also said student groups had the option to not invite certain speakers.
“I can’t make the pain of experiencing offensive comments go away,” Davis wrote in the email. “I know this is easy to say and hard to do, but don’t stop to listen. Don’t stop to engage if you don’t want to be part of it. Don’t take the bait of someone seeking to provoke you. They don’t define you, your character, or your place in the world and on your campus. These outsiders certain(l)y don’t define UT.”
