The College Fix

UPDATED

A student planner for a job fair at the University of Cincinnati recently rushed to invite Republican political candidates to a civics-themed networking opportunity held on campus after news that no members of the GOP were on the roster caused concern.

The “UCivic” local government student networking fair, at which students enjoy access to information on internships, job shadowing and career opportunities, initially only had Democratic candidates scheduled to attend.

Locals were alerted to the situation by a report in the Cincinnati Republic, a right-leaning news outlet. “With three endorsed Republicans running for City Council, several running for judge in the county, and multiple elected officials at the county level, not one of them has been included in this event,” reported Brad Johnson, a UC alumni, in his article.

The event was hosted at the university, which was not an official sponsor.

After the news circulated, some Republicans voiced alarm, prompting campus officials to look into the matter and work to correct it, said Greg Vehr, vice president for governmental relations and university communications, in a telephone interview with The College Fix.

He said the situation was simply an oversight made by busy professors who did not realize only Democrats were coming to the event.

“The student who was organizing the event was a very entrepreneurial student, doing mostly everything herself,” he said. “She sent out invitations to all these candidates to attend and when she got enough people that responded she just cut if off arbitrarily because she didn’t have any more room so she stopped.”

Vehr said this was the result because nearly all of the candidates running for local office are either Democrats or Independents.

An editor’s note in the Cincinnati Republic was later added to the original report saying, “Since the publication of the article, the necessary steps have been taken to invite a diversity of opinion into the event. While this event was not sponsored by the University, it is being held on campus. We are extremely glad the University of Cincinnati corrected this error, and is committing itself to a more diverse offering of opinion with this event, and for all others in the future.”

The student organizing the event called The College Fix on Wednesday to confirm that they were able to make space in the room for at least two GOP candidates to come to Wednesday’s event.

UPDATE: The headline has been amended.

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