What administrators would do if white nationalists wanted to speak at Mizzou

When asked if white nationalists, such as Richard Spencer, would be allowed to speak on campus, MU officials say it will answer when actually faced with the opportunity.

MU News Bureau Director Christian Basi says the university puts safety first, and would assess any speaker on a case by case basis. As of Wednesday no white nationalist group or speaker had asked to host an event at the Columbia campus.

Richard Spencer was set to host a “White Lives Matter” rally at University of Texas A&M on Sept. 11, but the university has canceled the event since the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville turned violent. The University of Florida on Wednesday denied Spencer the opportunity to reserve space for a similar event in Gainesville on Sept. 12.

Both Texas A&M and University of Florida cite the risk of violence as the reason why Spencer was denied space to organize an event.

Confederate statues have also been taken down in multiple states like Maryland and North Carolina.

There is an online petition to have the Thomas Jefferson statue removed from Mizzou’s campus. The petition, which dates back to 2015, says the statue “perpetuates a sexist-racist atmosphere that continues to reside on campus.”