Are there any speakers you wouldn't want on your (or your child's) campus?

No. Colleges are for open thinking.

I would not want anyone from the Wesboro Baptist Church to be anywhere near anyone I cared about. The reason is because they are evil nuts.

By campus I’m assuming you mean college. My answer would depend on whether or not listening to the speaker was mandatory and how the speaker is getting paid. That would go for myself. I would think that by the time my child was of college age, they would be able to determine who they want to hear speak. You pretty much have to trust their decisions by this age anyway.

The 9/11 conspiracy professor comes to mind.

Nope.
Free speech believer here.

No. I would expect my college-aged student to be intelligent and mature enough to choose whether or not to listen to anyone’s idea and, if he/she chose to listen, to evaluate its worthiness on his/her own.

Anybody can come and speak, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be respected or listened to. They can be booed off the campus for all I care.

Fran Drescher.

I would like a wide range of speakers at my kid’s college. Everyone from the Grand Wizard of the KKK to Louis Farrakhan. In politics, everyone from Marks (Karl, not Groucho) to Stalin.

I would, insist that the equal time rule be followed. The trouble with U.S. kids, is they are very isolated. The either listen to Gangster rap or Christian rock. There seems to be very few of the younger generation with a wide range of experience and knowledge.

Come to think of it Groucho Marks would make a very good speaker for the college crowd.

Gary Glitter. “I’m the leader of the gang I am” No, fuck off!!

Klipsch speakers are loud and efficient, but weak on the bass, so I wouldn’t want them on campus (they’re fine for keggers, though, where nobody cares about quality and just wants lots of noise).

Bose speakers are popular on campus, and are a formidable opponent during stereo wars, but are overpriced and overrated in my opinion, and should be discouraged.

George W Bush, just because he is the worst at giving speaches and its been so nice not having to watch him speak now that he is no longer president

No. I would love for them to hear what the enemy has to say.

After thinking of some of the speakers that would horrify me for instance Ann Coulter, or as @chyna mentions, anyone from the Westboro Baptist Church, I don’t think there is anyone I would not want to have at my child’s campus. I think by the time a young person has made it college, they have hit the point in their life where they are ready to hear opinions that may differ from theirs and ideas that challenge their own. I think these are good things and foster critical thinking skills Besides, as they say in The Godfather, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

Tom Cruise (he’s just creepy)

…And I’ll steal from above and agree with excluding The Westboro fanatics.

Every campus has its own culture. We may believe in free speech, but there are people you wouldn’t want to speak at your commencement because they would get drowned out with boos. There probably isn’t a single Republican who could speak at my alma mater without being protested and booed constantly. It wouldn’t be any fun for anyone. So why do it?

Here’s a question for those who would exclude the WBC: would you exclude them but not any neo-Nazi or KKK groups?

Although some of their comments could be construed as advocating murder, I don’t know of any Phelps-holes committing murder, whereas the latter two groups have explicitly advocated and committed many murders.

As to whether I advocate banning anyone, I have to give that some more thought.

Would not want, or would not allow? There is a difference.

@jerv Sorry, would not allow. Or, rather, as a student, would not want to allow.

Ok, phew. So, I’m not totally crazy.

So, this story was inspired by today’s real-life event, in which I asked my cousin (who goes to the same school as I do, and often has very different political views than I do) if she wanted to go see a someone speak with me (optional attendance, free admission). This person has almost no stated political views of their own, though one can guess where they land on issues based upon who they’ve worked for. But, the extra controversial message this person was peddling was… work hard, have a good attitude, and be involved in the world. And yet my cousin was so pissed off that the school would have not only invited this person to speak, but paid them to (you know, like schools do with speakers), that she was apparently boycotting their appearance.

So, thanks everyone. Here I was, thinking maybe it’s normal to have problems with schools inviting speakers. My faith in humanity has been somewhat restored.

I think that having someone like Fred Phelps speak would be good for the students and for the creep Phelps. He needs to hear disdain from youth and maybe get roughed up in the parking lot.