First off, I would like to say thank you—I’m a big fan of knowing the facts. I like to hear all facets of the story, not just my own side. So for that, I thank the group on campus, the Young Americans for Liberty, that asked Martin Shkreli to come to the University of Massachusetts and speak.

Thank you for the opportunity to let me hear out the “most hated man in America.” Let me tell you, I still very much hate him, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I was able to accumulate facts and figures from all sides of the story. So again, I thank you. What I don’t thank you for is the absolutely and astoundingly poor “organizational skills” that were displayed throughout the process of bringing this event to life. You see, my problem with everything that happened at U-Hall on the afternoon of Feb. 16 lies not in the who, but the how.

Now, to start off, it is understandable why this event was so poorly planned. The truth is the people who organized Shkreli’s talk were not professional event planners, or had even worked with event planning on a day-to-day basis. They didn’t have the knowledge to think about all of the little itty-bitty details that go into this sort of shindig.

It’s easy to say that you want to bring Beyoncé to campus, pregnant and all, but details need to be worked out before she can get here. Details like, say, transportation, the room she will be performing in, an AV system if it is needed, the number of chairs, will there be food or drinks, etc. It’s very easy to forget about the important behind-the-scenes stuff, which is exactly why there is an army of people here in Student Activities to help guide those looking to aid students in enjoying themselves on campus.

Thus, comments were made during the recent GA meetings and questionings which discussed the event. The lack of information given to the YAL on what was needed to properly run this event shed light on just how shady the entire production was.

In order to clear away any confusion about why this was so suspicious, let me hit you with some not so alternate facts: right off the bat, when creating a club or student organization, the president and treasurer of the club are both required to complete a training and have an understanding about the rules, regulations, and codes of conduct in regard to how clubs and organizations operate. This information also includes rules and regulations for how to run events, the necessities, the requirements, and who to speak to if any questions arise. With that being said, and with the knowledge and abundance of resources given to students by advisors within Student Activities, this event was an absolute train wreck.

After the conception of an event’s idea, a space request needs to be filled out to ensure the event can actually happen. No space, no event. Makes sense, right? It’s helpful for administrators and Campus Center staff to be able to have as much information as possible on the space request so that proper accommodations can be made. However, according to sources within the office of Student Activities, this particular space request, which needed to be placed weeks in advance of the event date, was only titled as “Thoughts of an Entrepreneur,” had no mention of Shkreli specifically being the speaker, and was only booked for a room fitting about 30 people, when the guest list was running upward of one hundred people.

Weeks went by, and there was no real mention or marketing for Shkreli until a Facebook event page was blasted in a post on Feb. 11, marking the event as not only being open to the public, but as an opportunity for the speaker to “come to UMass Boston to talk about business and finance.” However, the purpose of the talk seemed to change when the opening remarks for the events were given by the YAL treasurer, Marcelo Guadiana, stating that one of the goals of the organizations itself, as well as the event, was “to create intellectual debate and to break through the culture of political correctness plaguing our nation’s college campuses.”

Directly after these remarks were given and Shkreli was introduced, the tone, and what seemed to be the topic of conversation, drastically changed from business and finance to a defense of Shkreli’s shortcomings and pharmaceutical tactics.

The kicker, however, the almost laughable trademark of this event, was the fact that one of the most important points in planning an event was overlooked: security detail. While within the training presentation it does say that determining the utilization of security is subject to circumstances and can be determined by the club’s Advisor, the YAL was told by not only the SEOC Chair, Gray Milkowski, but by Associate Director of Student Activities, Donna Neal, that security would be needed.

And let’s just say, hypothetically, that nobody ever mentioned that security detail was needed. Where was the common sense to look at the type of event, the speaker, and most importantly, the campus we are on? To bring a controversial speaker onto a public university where literally anyone can walk on and off of campus as they please, with the knowledge that protests were being organized, and to not even consider that public safety would need to be contacted is downright ridiculous and calls for a ridicule of the judgment used to make this decision.

And yes, while there was public safety, and even Boston police officers on site, that was because there was knowledge of an organized protest on campus, which means that campus police had to be there. Officers who were not assigned to the detail in the first place had to give up extra hours and work overtime, giving up a lot of their valuable time and energy because of an oversight as ridiculous as lack of security.

Going as far as saying those who “organized” this event have a complete disregard for the safety and well-being of their peers is probably a little radical and inaccurate. But the truth of the matter is that actions do speak a lot louder than words, and the YAL’s actions most definitely display a lack of regard for the system that UMass Boston’s clubs and student organizations operate in. I’m grateful to be on a campus where, though there may be protesters, they are peaceful and understand that differing ideas shouldn’t automatically breed violence. If that weren’t the case, something could have not only ruined the day and the reputation of our university, but could have very well destroyed any hope of other clubs and organizations running similar events.
So, YAL, thanks for the opportunity to hear out the unsung villain. But no thanks. We’re good.