NATIONAL SECURITY: “The University of Florida has denied a request to rent space on its campus for an event that was expected to bring white nationalist leader Richard Spencer to the public flagship school next month.
The decision to deny the National Policy Institute’s request was detailed in a message from university President W. Kent Fuchs, which was posted to Facebook on Wednesday [8-16-17]. Spencer is president of the institute, which is headquartered in Northern Virginia.
‘Amid serious concerns for safety, we have decided to deny the National Policy Institute’s request to rent event space at the University of Florida,’ Fuchs said in the statement. ‘This decision was made after assessing potential risks with campus, community, state and federal law enforcement officials following violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va., and continued calls online and in social media for similar violence in Gainesville such as those decreeing: *The Next Battlefield is in Florida.*’
The institute had contacted the school to reserve space for a speaking event on Sept. 12, according to a previous message from Fuchs. In a statement posted on Saturday, he explained that the proposed event would have featured Spencer. He said that ‘no student groups or other groups affiliated with the university’ had sponsored the proposed speech.”
-Sarah Larimer, “University of Florida denies white nationalist event request, citing safety concerns,” The Washington Post online, Aug. 16, 2017 11:26am