http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/local/10539052.htm



Full Article:
Akron professor investigated over liberal filmmaker's visit

Associated Press


AKRON, Ohio - The University of Akron will investigate a professor for bringing filmmaker Michael Moore to campus days before the presidential election.

The university has received about 20 complaints from faculty members, alumni, parents and community members over theater professor Susan Speers' use of a campus auditorium at no cost for a political speech by Moore.

Indoor campus facilities are available for political events, but sponsors must pay a rental fee, university spokesman Paul Herold said.

Speers, in her 16th year at the university, said officials were aware she reserved Knight Auditorium on Oct. 30 so that Moore could talk to her class, Introduction to Theatre through Film, and the public.

Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" harshly criticized the Bush administration and became a rallying point for anti-Bush forces.

Speers said this week that she brought Moore to campus because "he is a man who made a difference through film in our society, not because of the message of the film."

She said university officials should have known that Moore's appearance would be about more than filmmaking because his art is entwined with his politics.

"The minute you say 'Michael Moore,' you know he comes from a political point of view," Speers said.

Three days before Moore's appearance, Speers got permission from university vice president for business and finance, Roy Ray, to use Buchtel Common.

Ray said this week that the public can use the outdoor area in the middle of campus with permission at no charge.

But Speers ended up using Knight Auditorium because Moore's representatives preferred the space, fearing inclement weather. Speers said she had permission from the university registrar.

Speers said university officials should have told her she would need to pay a fee to use Knight Auditorium. In e-mails to Ray before the event, Speers mentioned that she had reserved the auditorium.

The Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee voted in late November to investigate Speers' role in bringing Moore to campus.

Lloyd Anderson, a professor of law and chair of the committee, declined to comment on Speers' case.

Speers previously has tangled with the university's administration. In 2002, a federal jury awarded her $92,000 after she alleged the university denied her a merit-pay increase because she spoke out during a meeting.

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Information from: Akron Beacon Journal, http://www.ohio.com

Ready for a surprise?

I don't really have much of a problem with this. She teaches a class called: Introduction to Theatre through Film. Michael Moore would certainly be a valid person to have speak to her class. And, I cannot see why her class would have to pay or have Moore pay to speak in front of it.

The only thing I would have a problem with is if it was widely advertised to the general public that he would be speaking there. In THAT case, the primary purpose could not reasonably be to have him speak in front of her class. That, I could certainly see the University's point of view on. Let him speak, but make him pay like everyone else.

They must have found the only twenty students and faculty who were not voting for Kerry.
I saw Kerry speak at a rally at the student center at the University of Akron last spring. There were a couple thousand people who all waited patiently to go through the metal detectors to see him, and there were only a handful of Republicans, less than twenty, demonstrating against the rally: they were given protest area just outside of the hall, not a quarter mile away the way that Democrat protestors were treated by the Bushies. One Republican was carrying a cross, which upset me because I am Christian and do not find any link whatsoever between Bush and any moral religious values since he has no interest in helping the poor, the sick, etc. The Republicans also had bull horns, etc. The Michael Moore event in October was not advertised generally in Akron, or I certainly would have gone to it.