I didn't know Liberal were as bad as Conservatives

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Student audiences don't get to make their counter-arguments to Pence and DeVos, though

There isn't an event at which Pence and DeVos are told they must sit down and listen to whatever the students want to say. Walking out on Pence's speech is not 'suppressing' it. And DeVos had a microphone and loudspeakers, so the boos didn't prevent her being heard - the firm opposition to what she says and stands for was clear, though.

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/05/11/devos-bcu-speech-protes.cnn

The trouble with commencement speeches is that they're imposed on the students. They want a ceremony for their degree (often because their families want it), and as part of it they are made to sit through someone giving a speech (they were threatened with having their degrees mailed to them if they didn't shut up). If it goes on for an hour (as DeVos's was scheduled to, though she cut it to half an hour), it's got to be an excellent speaker who will benefit those forced to attend, rather than some ignoramus who has been put in charge of public education, with the intention of degrading it, by a psychopath. I wouldn't expect a graduating police academy to have to sit for an hour listening to an anarchist. The excuses given by the university afterwards ("we need ways of finding new people to give us money&quot are pretty shameful.

If these speeches were events that people just attended by choice to hear what the speakers wanted to say, then that would be free speech. But when it's "this is the culmination of your 4 years of work; you'll probably never have an event like this again", if there is a symbolic speaker, the symbol has to be something the students can sign up to.