Segregated graduation at GVSU

[marshwiggle]

Unless there's something specific about the event, then presumably they would have to follow whatever rules apply to bringing in guest lecturers and outside people to various campus events. I'd be surprised if the university had a rule against speakers who were "controversial" or "conservative", but any rules they might have (such as having a maximum honorarium of $X, for instance) should apply.

I'm a bit turned around at this point. These are different pots of money. In the US, there is usually some kind of student activity fee tacked on to tuition. That money is controlled by the Student Government Association which disburses it to registered student groups. Only some of this is going to events, a lot of it is for operating budgets or for the club tennis team to go play in the tournament in Florida or whatever.

These organizations also can use university facilities for their events. Depending on the event, they might have to pay the school money for this. If you're having a prominent speaker come and talk to a large crowd in a performance space or the basketball gym, there are going to be various costs associated with getting the space ready, hiring security or event staff, etc. I doubt there are different rules for the events for student groups than for any other events.

Other rules may not apply, partly because of the different pots of money, but also because student groups are in a different position within the university than departments or administration. The SGA might have its own rules about honorariums, but they get to make those decisions in line with their budgets. At public universities, events sponsored by university entities are in a different legal category than those sponsored by student groups. There might be academic freedom issues if a school decided that a department couldn't put on an event because of a speaker's views, but if they tried to shut down a student event based on that, they would run into constitutional issues around free speech and association.

My honorarium example was just an attempt to come up with some sort of rule that the university might have about outside speakers. As you say, there are different pots of money so such a rule may not exist. Your example of staffing was better.

The point is the university shouldn't be seen to be creating or enforcing event-specific rules that don't fit their normal policies because it will come back on them. Shrugging and saying "It's not our official event" isn't going to matter to the public.