CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A year after 1960s leftist radical-turned-academic Bill Ayers ignited a firestorm of protest when he was invited to speak at the University of Wyoming, campus conservatives will bring in a controversial speaker of their own.
Best-selling author and conservative commentator Ann Coulter will speak at UW's 1,800-seat Arts and Sciences auditorium on March 31, said Caitlin Wallace, a UW law student and former UW College Republicans president who's organizing the event.
A self-described polemicist who frequently targets liberals in her books, syndicated newspaper column and on television, Coulter's pull-no-punches political commentary has won her applause from the right and scorn from the left.
No specific time has yet been set for the event, Wallace said. While admission will be free, she said, it's not clear yet whether tickets will be printed or if the event will be open to the public.
Her visit will come a year to the day after UW's Social Justice Research Center, citing threats of violence, withdrew an invitation for Ayers to deliver a lecture on education theory at UW. Ayers, a University of Illinois-Chicago education professor, co-founded the domestic terrorist group the Weather Underground, which bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and other government buildings in the early 1970s.
When UW students and faculty re-invited Ayers to come to UW, school administrators banned him from speaking on campus for safety reasons. Ayers ultimately won a court injunction forcing the university to allow him to speak on campus.
Coulter is no stranger to controversial campus visits herself. Last March, she canceled a scheduled appearance at the University of Ottawa for security reasons after about 2,000 protesters staged demonstrations outside her speaking venue.
Wallace said Coulter's visit comes as a direct result of the Ayers controversy. After Ayers spoke on campus April 28, Wallace said a donor offered $10,000 to pay for a top-name conservative speaker to come to UW.
Coulter's $20,000 speaking fee will be covered by the anonymous donor and the Young America's Foundation, a Virginia-based conservative youth organization.
The event will be sponsored by the foundation and the UW College Republicans.
Wallace said that in recent years, most of the biggest names who came to speak at UW were liberals, including Ayers, TV political commentator Chris Matthews and President Obama.
“I'm excited to see UW have a high-profile conservative speaker,” Wallace said.
Wallace said she didn't know the topic of Coulter's speech or if she planned to talk about Ayers, though she noted that at other campuses Coulter tailored her speech around local events and issues.
For more information on Coulter's visit, contact Caitlin Wallace at cwallac8@uwyo.edu or visit the UW College Republicans' Facebook page.
Contact Jeremy Pelzer at jeremy.pelzer@trib.com or 307-632-1244.
