GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The University of Florida is denying a request by a group headed by white supremacist Richard Spencer to rent space on the campus for a September event.
UF President W. Kent Fuchs said in a statement Wednesday that the decision was made after assessing risks to the campus, community and law enforcement following last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Spencer, the head of the National Policy Institute, had contacted the university for plans to rent space on the campus in Gainesville, Florida next month.
In denying the request, Fuchs said he finds Spencer’s racist rhetoric “repugnant and counter to everything the university and this nation stands for.”
Fuchs said UF is dedicated to free speech and public discourse, but the First Amendment doesn’t require risk of imminent violence to students.
