Berkeley blocks Ben Shapiro lecture slated for September

After a spring marked by controversies involving free speech rights, the University of California, Berkeley has blocked a student-led effort to host popular conservative author Ben Shapiro for a campus lecture this fall.

In a statement sent to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday evening, Young America’s Foundation announced that administrators informed the Berkeley College Republicans in an email this week they were “unable to identify an available campus venue” to host the lecture, which was slated for Sept. 14. The administrators, identified by YAF as Dean of Students Joseph Greenwell and Student Organization Coordinator Millicent Morris Chaney, claimed the lecture was spiked “despite extensive efforts.”