A coalition of student groups
invited Nation
of Islam speaker Khallid-Abdul
Muhammad, but he cannot appear
because the university requires
sponsoring groups to provide
expenses, including a security
and insurance policy against risk
of violence. The Stanford Director
of Risk Management had
concluded that, because of rioting
at the prospective speaker's
1994 appearance at UC-Riverside,
Stanford would require a policy
totaling $5 million. Therefore,
the Student Affairs office took
the position that the reason Mr.
Muhammad could not appear was
solely financial. "Stanford is
very committed to broad expression
of speech and has had many people
speak here with varied and
controversial views."
Students felt the university failed
to protect their free speech
and academic freedom. The sponsoring
groups, which could not
raise sufficient funds to purchase
the policy, accused the
administration of a double standard,
because the university's
insurance carrier did cover other
speakers, but would not accept
the liability in this case. Other
groups had been required to
purchase insurance from outside
firms. But in this case, the
Office of Risk Management had based
the degree of risk on what
had happened at another campus,
a criteria which had no
bureaucratic precedent.