IUSA changes policy after speech cancellation

After former presidential adviser Meghan O’Sullivan canceled her speech last Tuesday, the IU Student Association, which partially funded the event, has changed its policies in order to protect against future confusion.\nO’Sullivan, a former deputy national security adviser under President Bush, canceled the speech after the Indiana Daily Student declined to comply with her request to deliver a public speech that would be off the record for the press. Kellen Hubert, director of IUSA’s Student Organization Funding (AID), said the incident was nobody’s fault and that he thinks the groups involved simply had a different understanding of the policies. \n“Nobody broke any rules,” he said. “We can chalk this up in the learning experience column.”\nHubert wrote a revised policy, which the Student Association passed unanimously yesterday, in an effort to better define the word “public.” The addition to the policy reads: “The ‘public’ includes student journalists and the press. The press cannot be denied entry into any event that is open to the public.”\nThe current IUSA Assisted Inter-organizational Development policy stipulates that any proposed event granted funding by IUSA must be open to all students, faculty and staff.\n“(A misunderstanding) of the definition of what exactly public is may be part of the problem,” Hubert said. \nThe policy change won’t affect the speakers Student Alliance for National Security chooses, but will affect the way the group is funded, said Adam Newman, assistant director of the Student Alliance for National Security. He added that he was worried the new policy would limit the information that students can access.\nHubert said he understands the importance of the media’s access to events. \n“The IUSA AID board wants to be an advocate for student groups,” he said, but he conceded that there may be some hypothetical circumstances in which special accommodations may be necessary.\nGene Coyle, faculty adviser for SANS, declined an interview with the Indiana Daily Student because he is a new member of a group organized by Provost Karen Hanson. Coyle said the group is going to consider the legal and policy issues of “off-the-record” talks on campus.\nHubert said O’Sullivan would like to come back, and that if she does IUSA would still be willing to offer support for the event. However, Newman said they have no plans for O’Sullivan to return at this point. \n“Its unfortunate,” Hubert said about the canceled event. But he plans to use the resulting attention that IUSA has received to promote the events that “make Indiana so great.”