Following a letter sent by the Berkeley College Republicans (BCR) to UC Berkeley’s Chancellor disputing the $6,372 security fees the school had imposed upon the group to host popular conservative pundit Milo Yiannopoulos, the school issued a scolding response to the group, calling their claims “baseless.”
The letter sent by BCR to administrators earlier this week reminded the UC Berkeley administration that the group had never requested security and therefore according to school Event Services policy, should not be charged for the security necessary for the event. The letter also asked to confirm that despite the formidable outside pressure from students and faculty at UC Berkeley alike, the school would not let this pressure affect their decisions regarding the event, and that the Berkeley College Republicans wanted a peaceful and speedy resolution to this administrative controversy.
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“We never requested security, period,” says Pieter Sittler, Internal Vice President of Berkeley College Republicans. “I know our members and many of the attendees of the event very well, and I can say with certainty that they will not be causing disturbances, but rather the ‘tolerant left’ will be. With their violence and rioting, they will never win the war of ideas with BCR, and we will always take the moral high ground. If the students of this school are serious about getting an education, and the administration is serious about providing a stimulating academic environment, then they would heed President Obama’s advice and not just listen to one point of view and have their opinions challenged.”
The school issued a formal response to the BCR from Christopher M Patti, Chief campus Counsel for UC Berkeley, in a letter provided to Red Alert Politics. In the response, the school calls the points of contention from BCR “baseless,” and states the BCR leadership had “abused” efforts by administration to smooth the event planning process along.
“The University has routinely and neutrally applied this policy to charge sponsors comparable fees for appearance for a wide range of speakers,” the letter reads. “…similarly baseless is your contention that the University’s failure to give BCR special treatment with regard to security fees is motivated by a desire to block your event.”
The school refused to remove or lessen the security fees imposed upon the Milo Yiannopoulos event.
“If BCR decides that it cannot afford the event and must cancel, the University would appreciate receiving notice of that decision so that it can discontinue expending public resources on the planning process,” Patti notified the students.
Sittler says the school’s request for over $6,300 in ‘security fees’ is unfair, adding the school has yet to respond to his FIOA request that would give him the information regarding past speakers and their security.
“The school’s response letter still doesn’t address the fact that we never requested security,” he tells Red Alert Politics.
The ten-business-day deadline for the school to respond to the FIOA request has since passed.
“Since the school never provided me with information about past security charges as I requested so to the best of my knowledge no other club has been required to pay such fees. If we are being accused of getting special treatment, they should put their money where their mouth is and provide us with past security estimates for other high profile speakers,” Sittler says, concluding, “I tend to believe the fact that Social Justice Warriors dislike Milo has something to do with heightened security costs.”
The Berkeley College Republicans intend on continuing their event as planned, and continuing to fight the administration on charges that they claim are due to the conservative and controversial nature of Milo Yiannopoulos.