Invitation to Moore irks GOP legislators

OREM — Several Republican Utah County state legislators are irked at the decision by Utah Valley State College's student leaders to use student funds to bring filmmaker Michael Moore to campus Oct. 20 for a speech.

"Michael Moore is a grandstanding demagogue," said Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem. "He discredits the use of the word documentary."

Dayton said what disturbs her about Moore's invitation is that she thinks he would not be a top speaker choice for the majority of UVSC students.

"UVSC is a terrific school," she said. "It's obvious to me this decision is not reflective of all the students there nor all the administrators."

While Dayton is dismayed at Moore's very invitation, Sen. Parley Hellewell, R-Orem, is concerned about the controversial filmmaker's asking price.

"I'm a little disappointed and surprised they're going to pay him $40,000," Hellewell said. "I think it could have been $10,000 or $15,000 or $20,000. I think it's a good thing to have differing views, but to have one with his view and pay him so much. . . .That's way too much money for one person whose views are opposite of most of the people in Utah County."

Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, said the biggest issue for him is the way student funds are being used.

"Whether they're a liberal or conservative speaker, that's not the issue," Bramble said. "Is it a valid use of mandatory student fees? That's the issue. If the student body wanted to bring in Michael Moore on a pay as you go basis, that's an entirely different thing. That's applicable whether it's Michael Moore or somebody else."

Bramble said UVSC — and other state colleges — could see some repercussions from the decision to bring Moore to campus.

"This could cause problems, not just for UVSC in the future but other state colleges as well," he said. "When they come to us and ask for funding, we're going to look at how they have used it in the past."

"While I realize the students do pay a lot of their own funds, they are still supported by tax dollars, and the state still owns the lands UVSC is on and the buildings, and UVSC exists at the will of the Legislature," she said.

Hellewell said he's heard people ask about cutting funding, but he thinks that's going too far. "I'd be opposed to any kind of retribution, cutting any funding," he said. "Going to college is a learning experience. I think they learned from it and will make a better choice next time."

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, is working on a bill that would define what sorts of activities student fees could cover, and which would have to be funded by what he calls a "pay-to-play" system.

The bill is not being drafted in response to Moore's invitation, he said, but has been in the works for some months.

Stephenson said he's been concerned for some time about obligatory student fees going toward student activities that are not enjoyed by all students.

"I think inviting Michael Moore is similar to inviting Jane Fonda during Vietnam," Stephenson said.

Rep. Craig Frank, R-Pleasant Grove, said UVSC students should be the ones to deal with campus leaders who may not be representing their views.

"Student government is a democratic process, and if (students) don't like what their leaders have done, they can vote them out," Frank said. "That's how they can fix that. That's how they take care of (state legislators), too."

A few UVSC students have circulated petitions to force a vote to determine if student body leaders remain in office. First, they must gather more than 2,000 signatures.

On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, said that he hopes the Legislature doesn't make any changes.

"I'm a firm believer that student government manages its own funds, and that they ought to be the ones making those decisions," Dmitrich said. "It's a great change from hearing Sean Hannity every time in Utah County."

As for Hannity, he is still UVSC's No. 1 choice as a speaker to balance Moore, said Joe Vogel, vice president of UVSC's student association.

"He's our first option; he seems to be the biggest draw, so we're looking to get him first," Vogel said. "If not, we have a few other options as far as some pretty high-profile Republican speakers that we could get."

While Hannity has mentioned the possibility, the talk-show host has yet to put the wheels in motion, according to his producer, James Grishman.

"He's put the offer on the table, and I have to see where he's going to go from here," Grishman said. "I'm not in a rush to get back to (UVSC), because I need to know definitively where (Hannity) is at. He has to tell me for sure that he's going to make time in his very busy schedule to make this happen."

Extra PING! I messed up - Here's the trib article that mentions Vreeland (check out what Epps states too):

Student leaders Jim Bassi and Joe Vogel continued their scramble Friday to find a conservative speaker to "balance" the upcoming appearance of "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore at Utah Valley State College.

The short list consists of commentators Sean Hannity and Michael Reagan - son of the late President Ronald Reagan - and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, said Derek Hall, college spokesman.

Their efforts paralleled a Wednesday request from UVSC President William Sederburg, who asked student leaders to recruit a right-leaning figure as a counterbalance to the left-wing Moore, whose documentary has caused a national uproar.

"The campus needs to be a place for the exchange of ideas," said Sederburg, who served as a Republican state senator in Michigan for 12 years. "We need to balance [Moore's appearance] with a more conservative viewpoint. The student government has an important responsibility to do that."

Yet college officials saw no need to "balance" the conservative perspectives of previous speakers, who have included Alan Keyes; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; former U.S. education secretary and drug czar William Bennett; or Barbara Bush.

Such a call for balance would vary "with each speaker, of course," Sederburg said. "The driving factor is that the election is on Nov. 2. If Barbara Bush came now, the standard would be the same."

The irony, according to Bassi and Vogel - student-body president and vice president, respectively - is that they planned all along to bring in two speakers of opposing political views - using student fees, not taxpayer dollars.

A public outcry erupted earlier this week after news leaked that Moore was scheduled to address the 8,000-seat McKay Events Center in Orem at noon on Oct. 20.

Outcry surrounding another Moore event - scheduled for Oct. 13 at California State University at San Marcos - also occurred earlier this week. University President Karen Haynes, a registered Democrat, canceled the filmmaker's appearance there after she concluded that paying Moore $43,500 with state funds would violate a California law, according to university spokesman Rick Moore.

Vogel believes the Utah outrage could have been a contributing factor to Sederburg's request for "balance."

"I think there was a lot of pressure put on the administration statewide," he said.

But Bassi views the president's recommendation as a way of providing "public information," rather than Sederburg "telling us what to do."

"The election is not the sole reason why [we have to balance Moore]," Bassi said. "Someone that outspoken, especially in our community, is obviously different than other speakers we've had. He's ruffled more feathers. For different speakers, you have to make different accommodations."

Garrett Epps, a professor of law at the University of Oregon who specializes in freedom of speech issues, described Sederburg's reasoning and official request for balance as "improper conduct."

"It's professional malpractice," Epps said. "He's compromised the academic freedom of the students. One of the things college presidents get paid to do is to explain to the public that students have the freedom to schedule speakers."

Epps said the the appropriate course of action would have been for Sederburg to invite another speaker himself.

"What he did was to monitor and correct the student government's actions," Epps said.

Jonathan Knight, of the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of University Professors, agrees.

"The [college] administration makes a fundamental mistake when it seeks to invoke the notion of balance in order for a speaking engagement to go forward," he said.

The situation is far more "blurry" and "muddy" for William Van Alstyne, an expert on constitutional law and law professor at Virginia's College of William and Mary.

He points out that only 26 students who comprise UVSC's student government participated in the decision to invite Moore. Yet all of the roughly 24,000 enrolled there pay mandatory fees of $208 each. That money pays for the student government's $300,000 budget.

When a tiny minority offers $50,000 of a majority's money to a speaker who espouses views that many of the majority oppose, claims of freedom-of-speech and student-freedom violations become complicated, Van Alstyne said. "The student government ought not to be in a position to use mandatory fees as slush funds to pay speakers."

Sean Vreeland, a UVSC senior and Army reservist, is representative of the "majority" students Van Alstyne describes. Vreeland is rallying the troops to muffle Moore before he invades the politically conservative Utah County.

He is launching a petition to kill the speaking appearance and have the student-body officers responsible removed from office.

"I think it's definitely an enormous mistake and a misuse of funds," Vreeland said. "If I pay student fees, I want it to go to something that will educate me."

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