VICTORY: UC Irvine Republicans Ban Overturned Following Backlash

UC Irvine have restored the rights of the College Republicans to host events and access space on campus.

This overturns an earlier decision by the university, reported by Breitbart earlier in the week, to prevent the Republicans from accessing space on campus for a full academic year after campus adminstrators learned of their plans to invite senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos to speak on campus a second time.

In a letter to Ariana Rowlands, President of the UCI Republicans, the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs said that the ban had been lifted pending appeal:

College Republicans at UCI

Dear Ms. Rowlands and the Authorized Signers of the College Republicans at UCI,

I am contacting you on behalf of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. As a follow-up to my letter sent yesterday, I want to share with you that the revocation of your privileges to access space on campus through UCI Student Center & Event Services has been withdrawn pending the final outcome of your appeal. At this time, your ability to access space on campus has been restored.

As mentioned in the June 22 letter, the vice chancellor invites you to submit your appeal by July 1. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Edgar Dormitorio

Chief of Staff
Student Affairs

This u-turn by UCI’s administration comes after a massive backlash from conservatives and liberals both on campus and off. In addition to scathing reports from conservative and libertarian media, the President of the Holyoke College Republicans, Kassy Dillon, slammed UCI for their “insult to every College Republican across the country” in an op-ed for Breitbart.

Extraordinarily, even left-wingers on campus came out in support of their rivals’ right to free speech.

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