UConn students object to Ann Coulter appearance at Jorgensen Center

[Bluebear]

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) approved $16,035 on Oct. 26 to fund a lecture by conservative commentator Ann Coulter, the most it has ever spent on a speaker, according to USG Funding Board Chair Michael McKiernan, a 5th-semester political science major.

The College Republicans are sponsoring the event, which will be on Dec. 7 at 7:00 p.m. at The Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. They chose Coulter as a speaker because "she's an icon of conservative pop culture," said College Republican Chairman Michael Hubbard, a 5th-semester management major. Hubbard said he hoped Coulter's lecture would spark a dialogue and affect political apathy among students....

Eric Knudsen, a 3rd-semester journalism and social welfare double major organized a group called Students Against Hate in response. The group plans to create a positive Counter-Coulter event, where students can "share their distinct cultures with one another and the campus in one culminating event." The group will meet Wednesday at 7 p.m. in room 403 in the Student Union.

Knudsen said he is not opposed to a diversity of ideas on campus. Rather he opposes Coulter because, " expresses more than her political views-she makes death threats."

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