Cancel U: University community members tried to get chancellor to pull the plug on Trump rally

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University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor Sean Parnell received a number of complaints from students and faculty who don’t want former President Donald Trump on campus for his Save America rally on Saturday.

Trump’s organization, “Save America,” rented the Alaska Airlines Center, an arena that holds about 5,000 people, for $53,081. The event, which begins at 4 pm, is to support the campaigns of U.S. House candidate Sarah Palin, U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka and Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and will also put funds into the main Save America coffers for future campaigns the PAC supports.

Parnell sent an all-campus letter in response to the student and faculty concerns that had been expressed:

“The university must review all facilities-use requests objectively with freedom of speech and other legal considerations at the forefront of decision making. This legal and ethical obligation is one of the many policies that safeguard freedom of expression on campus, an important aspect of UAA’s mission,” Parnell wrote.

“As a publicly funded university, it would be both illegal and unconstitutional to prevent a group from leasing university facilities based on speech that may occur in the facility or speech that we disagree with. Some exceptions to this First Amendment right do exist, but none of these exceptions apply in this case,” he wrote.

Parnell reminded the campus that the event is not being hosted by the university itself, but by the political action committee Save America.

The U.S. Secret Services is now in the neighborhood and coordinating with local law enforcement and security agencies to ensure the public’s safety and the safety of the former president and the candidates.

The Alaska Airlines Center was not the preferred location for the event; it’s a small arena. The Sullivan Arena can hold up to 8,700 people, but had been made into a temporary homeless shelter by former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, and the damage from that project has not been repaired yet, even though the homeless were moved out of the Sullivan Arena last week.

58 COMMENTS

    • But vulgar “let’s go Brandon” is perfectly fine in any 45 supporter’s hypocritical handbook, typical!

      • “Lets go Brandon” is vulgar as compared to “F#ck DJT”. Let me guess – retired school teacher!

      • You are why we will win this war Andrea.

        Write the 2 items discussed above next to each other and then pause long enough read them then invite several young kids into the room and ask them to read the lines out loud.

        Bet you voted for Brandon, what a Los..

      • Hmmmm. “Let’s” is not vulgar. “Go” is not vulgar. “Brandon” is the name of many males and is not vulgar.

        As a nonpartisan, I’d have to say you’ve mischaracterized the phrase. Maybe “insulting” or “demeaning” would be a better term than “vulgar.”

  1. Same whiners that dogged Gen Hamilton’s Pebble articles? Simply because Hamilton took their “White Redoubt” away from them?

  2. There was once upon a time when liberals supported freedom of speech. Not anymore apparently.

    • That is because today’s so-called leftists (who are actually fascists by very definition of the word) are NOT in any way whatsoever “liberal”, if they ever even were to begin with.

  3. Those students will be excused from attending then!!!! Last time I checked we live in AMERICA ?? GOD BLESS AMERICA LAND THAT WE LOVE! STAND BESIDE HER …OR GET THE H@LL OUT!!!

  4. Unbelievable. Communist treasonists. They are too ignorant to comprehend that free speech is part of democracy. Perhaps the UA system needs to add basic civics to their general requirements.

  5. Is it reasonable to conclude if someone denies the rights of others, those same rights should be denied to them? Identify the traitors to our American ideals and let them taste their medicine.

  6. Trump Derangement Syndrome is actually a six credit course now. Some psychotic, pot-addicted professors teach this course. The students use the Trump Rally for extra credit. Next year, a degree will be offered as part of the TDS continuing education. Graduates will be offered jobs in the Biden Administration. These are special needs students, but UAA health care will pay for psychological evaluations.

  7. The day before the big rally, ADN runs the world’s fluffiest piece on Lisa and her tormented soul. “I have had many tearful conversations, particularly with women, about the court’s decision and what that means for women around the country,” Murkowski said in a phone interview this week.

    Give me a damn break. What a miserable witch.

  8. You can vote your way into Communism, but 0nce it gains power, you have to shoot your way out o it!

  9. I’m against the orange shister having a rally at UAA, but I’m not a student. I’m also not a fan of Sarah. Begich is way better candidate. Trump may end up giving the seat to Peltola. Murkowski is murky though her seniority will beat blondie and Dunleavy looks like he’ll be governor for four more years.

    • 1. It is a state owned facility, the libs can cry and whine all they want, it’s not their call.
      2. Hows your 401 under Brandon? Lost all the earnings orange man made you yet?
      3. If Lisa retains her seat it’s because of jungle voting, same can be said if Peltola wins the temp seat for young.
      How are you enjoying high gas prices, inflation and the death of Alaskas economy? Tourism and fishing cannot replace oil and coal.

    • Sweeney, other commenters want you to exit this forum; such intolerance is a leftist trait. I welcome confronting you with debate in this public arena. That said, your statements are generally true except for your criticism of Trump. First of all, his orange hair and skin is irrelevant. Do you also object to the skin color of Barak Obama or Ben Carson? In any event, I challenge you to cite for us precisely how Trump is a shyster (you spelled shister). Please don’t waste time mentioning those damaged by bankruptcies of his corporations. Such things are common in the construction industry; contractors failing to protect themselves with bond claims and mechanic’s liens get damaged by their own neglect. Moreover, try ignoring Trump’s narcissism and unpolished demeanor and focus on comparing what he actually accomplished as compared to the Biden or Hillary or even Obama for that matter.

  10. [I]f there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1929. [United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644 (1929)]

  11. UAA needs to humble itself becoming once agian a 1-2 year community college. A 4-8 year university not what these new american generations want. Fail to downsize
    .U A A will go extinct and all admin, falculty, and staff will lose their employments just as sjc in sitka. Alaskans want inexpensive and shorter degree programs. The average alaskan, We don’t have the time nor the education for a 4-year program. The harder working Alaskans want to earn money asap not twiddle their time taking unecessary courses to a technical vocational certificate .

    • Their Technical College is treated like a 4-yr and it’s garbage. Not the training, but the schedule. Technical schools don’t need the summers off. It should be get in, get out, go make money.

    • You got it, honey! The “aspiring servile” have no need to learn anything but the basic etiquette of bowing and scraping before their betters!

  12. Mostly all Lisa Murkowski supporters, who incidentally, is really going to be getting it good from Trump on Saturday.

  13. They can go to their safe space and cry like a baby. They should not have any rights as a US citizen.

    • No, it’s not fear at all, just simply sick & tired of the blatantly obvious lies, & the vulgarity, bigotry, misogyny, hatred & division!

      • 1. Exaggerations and rhetoric matter not. Policy matters.
        2. You literally cannot point to a single thing DT has ever said or done that indicates he is a bigot. Or a misogynist. Go ahead, try.
        3. Hatred? Maybe for commies. But who cares? Commies deserve to be hated.
        4. Division, yes. He exposed you Dems as the Marxists you are, and that has driven a wedge between them and normal Americans. Again, not a problem. You have to separate the wheat and the chaff.

      • Ignorance IS bliss. If your here on this site, you must be interested in actual news of some sort? Or just trolling? Nobody is still that oblivious without trying hard to be.

      • You just listed off the attributes of the Democrat party. Lies: Biden’s entire life; Misogyny: turning a blind eye to Title IX in order to cater to Transexual athletes; Hatred & Division: Antifa/BLM and Dem politicians encouraging their base to publicly and physically confront who they oppose on the street and at their homes.; Bigotry: demeaning and impugning African Americans and Hispanics who don’t tow the Democrat party line. Care to add any additional items to your list, Andrea?

      • That indeed is reflective of the Joey Biden administration and all the cabinet heads, put in not for their professional expertise, but for their sexual and gender confusion.

  14. I completely support Trump, Dunleavy is doing a good job, worthless Murkowski must go, Begich will be a great replacement for Don Young, Palin will be an embarrassment again, my 2c

  15. Save America PAC already has over $113 Million to spend spreading BS, not sure why anyone would give their hard earned cash to a con man and grifter who openly lies

  16. Interesting to note that stupidity is not specifically prohibited in The U.S. Constitution.

    Pity, that.

  17. UAA = oversize community college for Anchorage and Bush liberals and druggies who couldn’t focus on their high school years.

  18. There is a mental health crisis in America, and like all mental health issues, it begins with individuals abandoning objective reality and substituting it with what they believe is real.
    A prime example of poor mental health is the individuals, students, and faculty at UAA who seek to take away rights they enjoy from others.
    I can’t think of anything more Anti-American than stealing something from your neighbor and then calling it your own.
    The United States is in the midst of a mental health crisis. There is a cabal, a sanitarium of individuals and groups that have traded objective reality for a twisted and distorted version of the world.
    Insanity is ruling America.

  19. Impressive Sean Parnell held the line and didn’t cave.

    I’d ask if Dunleavy was watching, but you can’t see leadership hiding behind a desk.

  20. Glad the leftist minority lost. Time that people in universities shut this cancel bs. down!

  21. The rally on Saturday revealed that all the EMPTY university parking lots were blocked off. I imagine that was intentional because of politics, not policy.
    The 11 protesters could only muster silly signs like “Not my cheeto president.” Kind of funny, but if you can’t attack policy or performance but must stoop to physical appearances, it is on par with, “I have no argument.”

  22. Biden has ensured that Trump will be your new president there is no question about it, and the reps will own all of congress as well with super majorities. Get used to it now, its in the bag, thanks to the dems and joes war on russia, that joe created, by arming up ukraine july 2021 with england in order to start the war in the first place. 1997 joe biden arming ukraine would lead to ww3, biden 2021 arms up ukraine.

  23. Merch mobiles in DC have removed Biden merch. Nobody wants it. Only Trump gear. Alaska is a long way from the belt way and literally the last to know anything. And, your representatives as well. They don’t tell anything they do know it appears.

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