The Progressive Leftist Motto:
Posted on 01/30/2011 10:28:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Washington University in St. Louis canceled abstinence advocate Bristol Palin’s speaking engagement amid much outcry over her qualifications and payment.
The university withdrew her invitation after students began to protest her scheduled February appearance as part of Student Sexual Responsibility Week. Scott Elman, president of Student Health Advisory Committee, told WU’s school paper that the decision to cancel Palin’s appearance was “100 percent mutual.”
Elman said the SHAC initially invited Palin because they felt a big name would draw more people to hear a message about abstinence. But both parties agreed that the controversy would overshadow the event’s intended message of sexual responsibility.
“SHAC stands by our decision to extend an invitation to Bristol, but we understand that a lot of our original intentions for discussing abstinence on campus, as well as sexual responsibility, were going to be lost” in the uproar surrounding her appearance, stated Elman.
The controversy began after the university unveiled that a $20,000 budget was approved to sponsor the panel discussion featuring the “Dancing with the Stars” alumna. Student Union President Morgan DeBaun issued a statement announcing that students had not been consulted in the decision to bring Palin to campus. The university has nearly 14,000 students. The announcement and SU statement were followed by student petitions and verbal protests against the decision.
According to the campus publication Student Life, the protests are over mainly over the money. However, there appears to be some other issues involved in the protest.
On a Facebook page entitled “No Thanks Bristol,” it states, “It's not that we don't support abstinence as a legitimate approach to sex on campus, but that we're paying an inordinate amount of money on a panel and a speaker that really don't deserve such resources when things like EST and a bunch of competitive debate groups don't get the money they need to fully operate!”
The Facebook page appears to have been created by the Washington University College Democrats. Four paragraphs down, the page goes on to question Palin’s qualification to speak on abstinence.
“She is a polarizing figure, both politically and socially, and does not provide the well-rounded and thoughtful approach a matter as hot as sex on campus deserves. She is unqualified, undeserving and her fame comes only as a result of her association to a most ridiculous political family,” the page states.
The above message is reportedly the general sentiment on campus. Democrats, Republicans and abstinent individuals alike reportedly agree. However, many messages posted on the page conflict with allegations that Palin is unqualified.
A poster named Brian Kline wrote, “I understand not thinking she's the most qualified or not liking her political views, but she does have firsthand experience of the matter at hand – teen sex – so it would be unwise to deride her just because you don't like her and/or her family.”
Commenter Christopher Kittredge George responded to claims that Palin is a hypocrite saying, “Last time I checked, most anti-drug advocates are reformed addicts. They're all hypocrites too, right?”
Palin, the daughter of the former Alaska Governor, became pregnant at age 17. Since giving birth to her now two-year-old son, Tripp, Palin, 20, has become a spokesperson for Candies’ campaign against teen pregnancy. She also advocates for abstinence.
Palin was scheduled to talk about her experiences as a teenage mom and also abstinence as an option for teens wishing to prevent teen pregnancy. It is unclear how much of the $20,000 would have been paid to her for speaking on the panel. She never signed a contract with the university committing to an appearance.
Kathryn Plax, a pediatrician and the director of the Adolescent Center at the medical school, will replace Palin in the panel discussion on sexual abstinence. The panel discussion will be held in WU’s Graham Chapel on Feb. 7.
What I heard here locally was the total budget was $20,000, and that Bristol wanted $17,500. I’d have cut her too, if she’s more for the money than the message.
You’re right.
They object to the $20,000 cost of the event, which - as I understand it - is not a fee given to Palin, but the total cost of the event - but would probably not flinch in shelling out $50,000 to Clinton or Olbermann.
The story doesn’t say that Palin was given a $20,000 speaker’s fee. It says that the cost of sponsoring the event, including bringing in other panel speakers, was $20,000.
The Progressive Leftist Motto:
So Wash. U enlighten us with who your past speakers have been and how much they’ve been paid.
I totally agree with you!! They invited her not the other way around. How is she riding her Mom’s reputation? Leave her alone! I don’t see her going out and giving her political opinions about ever thing and everyone like that loser Megan McCain who is riding the coat tails of her Daddy big time!
What idiots! The horny frat boys and round-heeled sorority girls would rather have STD’s, AIDS, abortions, sterilizations, infertility later on, suicides and mental illnesses than hear about abstinence!
They all deserve whatever filthy diseases they pick up...and barren wombs later on!
Just looked up what it costs to send your kid to this cesspool: $39,400 for tuition alone. Add in $10-12,000 more for room, board, and incidental expenses.
To produce loose women, mind-numbed robots, and alcoholics.
What a bargain!
For someone with stature like Thomas Sowell, I think it's about right.
Hey, this is America, and other groups and people can do what they want.
I'm just tired of all the family members who ride the gravy train of their political parents. The Kennedys made a career of this. And who could ever forget Billy Beer?
20K is too much I am sure we could all agree on what would have been a 'fair' amount for any negotiated contract between two parties. Socialism has its good points...
/end sarcasm
Naw, those who are running down Bristol Palin are just jealous that they can’t make $20,000 for a speaking engagement. If they could, they would be extolling the vitures of capitalism. LOL!
Bristol Palin is identified as an ‘abstinence advocate’. Now, we can smirk at that title but how different is it from some minor Hollywood actor who got into trouble with the law for being high on cocaine, did rehab successfully and goes around colleges using his/her fame to advocate for abstinence from drugs? Bristol Palin isn’t spouting idiotic political opinions like Meghan McCain or dissing her famous parent like Ron Reagan. She is telling kids her age (20) that having sex before marriage and risking pregnancy is a bad idea, no matter how cute the guy is or because he pledges his undying love if you’ll just ‘prove’ you love him, too by having sex with him. Whatever fee Bristol was asking for is really between her and the Student Association. To slam the young woman because she was scheduled to speak to college students and use her experience as the nation’s most famous unwed mother as a cautionary tale seems unfair. If you want to be against Bristol’s mother on a political basis, that’s one thing, but Bristol, for all her faults, is not doing anything terribly wrong here. In fact, in this instance, she isn’t doing anything at all. The deal is off.
You and Washington University of St. Louis.
Really? When did Loughner admit that it's wrong to massacre people?
Wow, we're now comparing Bristol Palin to Loughner.
We've reached new depths of PDS.
There are a few factors here ... at first blush, I’d agree: she isn’t worth $17,500. But it was no doubt calculated that if they spent $17.5K and she attracted a very large crowd, garnering publicity, it was worth every penny. The $17.5 figure is probably middle range for a ‘name’ speaker at any college.
The regrettable lesson here is that it pays to become a ‘celebrity.’ Frankly, I think Bristol has milked her celebrity for all it’s worth. Now it’s time to mother her son and get back to school as a student. Let her study hard, earn her degree, work hard, get some experience in the real world (like her mother did), then come back and let’s hear what she has to say. So far her expertise is restrict to being born to the right mother and becoming pregnant at 17. Not worth $17.5K for one night at WUSL or anywhere else.
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