A conservative campus group at the University of Wyoming has had its ability to receive funding from its school coffers yanked just weeks after hosting conservative pundit Dennis Prager.
The group, Turning Point USA, was accused by the student government’s finance committee of not following campus policy in hosting the Nov. 9 event and has since been suspended from requesting funding until 2019, the Branding Iron campus newspaper reports.
The pro-capitalism student group was accused largely of minor procedural infractions: not properly labeling its posters, not using an approved ticketing method for the event, and “providing food unauthorized by UW Risk Management,” the Iron reports.
While student campus leaders blamed procedural errors for their crackdown, it’s clear the event was highly controversial and prompted protests as left-leaning students were upset their student fees supported a conservative speaker.
Even prior to Prager’s speech, titled “Socialism Makes People Selfish,” a student government diversity leader had vowed to work “tirelessly” to shut it down.
Hunter McFarland, director of diversity for the university’s student government, had told The College Fix she wanted Prager’s talk to be canceled because he “is an anti-academic, rape advocate who spews hate speech against Muslims, Black people, Latinas, and many other groups who deserve to be protected at the University of Wyoming.”
About a month after the speech, the campus hosted an official debate over whether student fees should be used to host controversial speakers, the Iron reports.
Meanwhile, the Turning Point USA chapter president, Jessica Leach, told the Iron she is appealing the decision to revoke access to funding.
They also launched a Go Fund Me page to raise money independently. Prager, on his Facebook page, touted the effort.
“I gave a speech at the University of Wyoming with over 600 in attendance. Following the speech the student government decided to defund the group that brought me in. Let’s all pitch-in together to support them,” Prager wrote.
MORE: Student leader works to shut down Dennis Prager’s talk
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