On Oct. 2, the Student Government Association (SGA) decided not to fund the request of Trinity’s chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT). Articles published by conservative publications Campus Reform and Breitbart regarding this decision caused the subject to resurface at last week’s SGA meeting.
YCT requested $10,280 to bring Heather MacDonald, author of The Diversity Delusion, to speak on campus in an open event. At the time of the SGA meeting, the event had not yet been approved by the Event Review Committee.
According to Ty Tinker, president of SGA, the primary reason the request was not funded was due to the amount requested.
“$10,300 is a big price tag for any campus speaker. We’ve never funded anything over $8,000, and it’s very rare that we fund anything over $5,000 to bring a speaker on campus,” Tinker said.
Tinker emphasized that the funding request did not include an alternative.
“In this case, they didn’t give us line items. They didn’t give us, ‘Here are some things you can fund, but if you weren’t to fund it, here’s what you’d cancel.’ It was either $10,000 plus the $300 for security or nothing. So, we went with nothing,” Tinker said.
According to Tinker, senators were also concerned about security issues.
“[We] discussed several different concerns. Some were geared towards the content of the speaker, but the primary reasons that the funding was denied was because of the previous security concerns being seen at other campuses. There have been riots and protests,” Tinker said.
At the meeting, senators raised concerns regarding the content of the event. According to Tinker, senators can vote for or against a funding request on this basis.
“Some concerns during the meeting were brought up about whether or not the speaker represents the pillars of Trinity. I’d say that was a pretty brief proportion of the discussion, and senators are not heavily confined by the constitution, and they’re allowed to vote how they want to vote,” Tinker said. “That’s the reason they’re elected into office is to represent their own views and their class’ views. It is an elected position, so I guess that’s a plug to vote for who you think will best represent you.”
In the article published by the Campus Reform, the publication notes that they reached out to SGA members for comment. No SGA members have heard from the publication directly.
