When Washington University junior Ryan McCombe heard that Bristol Palin was chosen as the keynote speaker for his school’s annual Student Sexual Responsibility Week, he had just one question:“Why? Her story doesn’t resonate with what she will be saying.”
Wash U’s Student Health Advisory Committee was hoping to have Bristol Palin come speak on their campus about the importance of sexual abstinence. Palin, who became a spokesperson for abstinence after becoming a single mother at age 18, was set to sign a contract with Wash U to not only appear as the events keynote speaker, but also appear on a panel with several others to discuss sexual responsibly.
According to the minutes from the Jan. 26 Student Union meeting, the cost of bringing Palin to campus would be about $20,000, taken from Wash U’s student activity fee. The hope was that the new level of discourse bought by Palin would make her worth the money.
The Wash U student body, however, was not as optimistic. Within a day of the announcement, Facebook groups and an online petition were created in protest of Palin.
“I was concerned that she was speaking on a topic she knew nothing about, “sophomore, Philip Thomas said. “That’s a lot of money being allocated to the issue, and with budget cuts and rising tuition, there was a lot of concern.”
Thomas and McCombe were two of the students who took part in creating the petition to propose a referendum to the Student Union to nix the Palin speech.
“Our motivation was to compel the Student Union to pull Palin from the event,” said McCombe. “[The petition] had no political motivation. The motivation was that this is a lot of money for someone no one wants.”
While student groups such as College Democrats were vocal on the issue, the student movement touted that it was non-political. A key point bought up at the Student Union meeting was that many students were opposed to the use of a political figure for an educational event.
Though students were quick to act against the speaker agreement, there was concern that the usual Student Union referendum process would take to long.
“One of the problems we had was that there was a 10-day waiting period before we could take this to a vote,” said Thomas.
According to the minutes from the Jan. 26 Student Union meeting, a referendum needs to feature 230 signatures before it can be brought to the election commissioner. McCombe said that the number of signatures was not a problem, as 28 hours after the petition started, it had already collected 563 names.
It turned out that the time needed to over turn Palin’s speaking contract did not pose a problem either. The day after the Student Union meeting, the university and Palin’s representatives agreed it would not be in the event’s best interest to feature Palin as a speaker.
“I’m happy with the results,” said McCombe. “I’m happy that the decisions were made in the interests of the student body.”
The call to action, however, is not over now that Palin is no longer speaking at Wash U. According to McCombe, the biggest step is what the student body does now that their protests were successful.
“We’re encouraging people to attend the Sex Week event to see what they have to say,” said McCombe, “We want to show them that students are willing to listen.”
Thomas said that several students are hoping to take the momentum from this event and run with it, using the success to fuel other movements on campus, such as reformation initiatives and environmental processes.
“The greatest victory here was that the event organizers were listening to the student body,” said Thomas. “The Sex Week organizers took the initiative.”
