This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 28, 2011 - Washington University announced early Friday that a student group would not proceed with a contract to have Bristol Palin take part in a panel discussion on sexual responsibility next month.
The possibility of her appearance had prompted protests by students on campus.
At the request of the Student Health Advisory Committee, the university issued this statement:
"The student group that invited Bristol Palin to come to Washington University in St. Louis has mutually agreed with her not to proceed with a contract regarding Palin's participation in a panel discussion at Washington University on Feb. 7.
"The Student Health Advisory Committee had extended an invitation to Palin, a spokesperson for the prevention of teen pregnancy, to speak on abstinence as part of Washington University's student Sexual Responsibility Week; Palin had not yet signed a written contract to speak at the university.
"Because of the growing controversy among undergraduates over the decision to pay for her talk with student-generated funds, the Student Health Advisory Committee and Palin decided that the message that they intended on sharing would be overshadowed by controversy. (The Student Health Advisory Committee's sponsorship of Palin was being supported by funds from Student Union, Washington University's undergraduate student government. Student Union receives its funds from a small mandatory activities fee from each undergraduate.)
"The committee has invited Katie Plax, MD, head of adolescent medicine and associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine, to participate on the panel. Plax, who is also medical director of The SPOT, a drop-in teen health center at Washington University Medical Center, will join a representative from WUSTL's Student Health Services, the Catholic Student Center at Washington University, and Planned Parenthood in the panel discussion to be held Feb. 7 in Graham Chapel on campus."
Our earlier story:
Hundreds of Washington University students have responded angrily to the student treasury's decision Tuesday to approve $20,000 for an abstinence event that could feature a speech by Bristol Palin.
Just a day after the vote, students and campus political groups such as the College Democrats had already started to plan protests and to try to figure out how to get the funding overturned, all while the national media flooded the school with attention.
Students are upset because the money for the event comes from the annual activity fee all students pay to fund campus groups. They said it's a waste of their money to fund a speech by a politically polarizing figure on a subject for which she has no professional credentials.
"It's fine to have someone speak about abstinence-only perspective -- that's fine -- but it should not be her, and certainly not for $20,000," Washington U. student Jon Branfman said. "Her only qualification for speaking about abstinence is that she did not abstain."
Palin, 20, the oldest daughter of 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, has become a staunch advocate of abstinence ever since she made headlines for having a baby out of wedlock.
The university's Student Health Advisory Committee asked the treasury for the money to bring Palin on Feb. 7 for a 25-minute speech about her life story, followed by a panel on the issue of abstinence. It's one of many events during the group's annual Sexual Responsibility Week. The group's president, Scott Elman, told the Beacon that Palin has yet to accept the speaking invitation. He declined additional comment.
Elman has publicly defended the move to bring Palin here, saying she was invited to bring balance to the abstinence panel and that she would tell a life story that students would find valuable. "We're not asking you to agree with what Bristol says," he said at an open forum on campus Wednesday night.
The student newspaper, Student Life, initially reported that Treasury, the Student Union's financial arm, voted Tuesday night to approve $20,000 toward advisory committee's request; it's unclear how much of that would go to Palin herself, but ABC News has reported that she usually earns $15,000 to $30,000 per engagement.
Hundreds of students have united in opposition to spending that much of their activity fee on a visit from Palin.
A couple of Facebook groups calling for protests of the speech and a student-body referendum to repeal the funding have already popped up. In one Facebook group, nearly 300 students said they would attend a protest the night of the speech on Feb. 7.
Students also aired their concerns and tried to drum up solutions Wednesday night at a meeting of the Student Union Senate, the legislative counterpart to the Treasury, despite its lack of power to overturn the funding vote. Some students called for constitutional amendments or even a recall of all the treasury members who voted "yes."
Student Lauren Banka said Palin was chosen not for her credentials, but for her shock value and to fill seats. "I don't want my student activities fee to go there," she said at the meeting.
Elman said Palin was the "highest-profile case" of someone overcoming the challenges of a teenage pregnancy and would thus have a valuable story to tell. Elman also said Palin would be part of a diverse panel on abstinence that would include Planned Parenthood, the Washington U. Catholic Student Center and the university's student-health service.
At the treasury meeting the night before, no students in attendance said they opposed the funding, said Morgan DeBaun, the student body president. To her surprise, opposition then surged the next day as word of the funding approval got out, and her office started getting angry phone calls from faculty, students and alumni.
By Wednesday night, students had flooded the Student Life's website with hundreds of comments, nearly all of which oppose the Treasury's vote to bring Palin here on students' dollars. Some commenters took their anger out on the Washington U. administration and vowed never to donate to the school again.
The Washington U. administration said in a statement that it had nothing to do with the decision to fund Palin's speech: "Bristol Palin, a spokeswoman to prevent teen pregnancy, has been asked by a student group, the Student Health Advisory Commitee ... to be part of a panel discussion during this year's Sexual Responsibility Week at Washington University. Palin has not yet formally agreed to the appearance."
The university's statement added, "Washington University has not invited Bristol Palin -- the Student Health Advisory Committee has done so."
Speech funding opponents were working feverishly Wednesday to get enough student signatures to force a referendum to overturn the funding for Palin. But provisions in the student government constitution could bar them from having a referendum before Palin's speech is finalized. Opponents said they were continuing to explore other options.
Washington U's student body trends liberal. Palin already had numerous detractors among the student body because of her promotion of abstinence and for her political views.
Sherveen Mashayekhi, president of the College Democrats, said he and others don't oppose the speech because of abstinence or politics. He noted that the College Republicans, College Democrats and students of all persuasions had united around the issue. "The big issue is Bristol Palin's qualifications and the price tag on the panel," Mashayekhi said.
Beacon staffer Dale Singer contributed information to this story.
Puneet Kollipara, a Washington University student and staff member of Student Life, is a former Beacon intern.