Hannity travel tab near $50,000

"We did not have a speaking contract with Hannity, so we were just very careful on how all of the negotiations went," Hall said.

"We were just being very careful. We wanted the event to happen. It was very important to us. And we think it went very well."

Snagging Hannity to speak was worth his travel costs, said student body vice president Joe Vogel, who sparked controversy when he agreed to pay $40,000 of student fees to have Moore speak.

But the brouhaha over the liberal filmmaker's appearance in notoriously conservative Utah Valley ultimately prompted Hannity to speak at the state school in an attempt to provide an opposing viewpoint before the Nov. 2 general election.

"Even though (Hannity's) traveling costs were a lot, I think it was really nice of him to come out," Vogel said. "It ended up being a benefit to our school financially."

In the end the costs for the two speakers only differ by about $11,000, with Hannity being less expensive thanks to his waiver of the speaking fee and lighter security needs.

While Hannity's visit generated $15,000 in donor contributions, Moore has generated just $1,500 from local donors — leaving UVSC with a $25,000 bill to pay, as opposed to Hannity's $8,900 tab.

No one in UVSC's government is complaining, however.

After ticket sales and donations are factored in, the student government only had to pay $34,000 to get two major political pundits to speak on campus, Vogel pointed out.

That leaves $16,000 in the speakers series budget for the remainder of the school year.

So who's going to follow Moore?

"We're going to get through this, and then we'll make plans," Vogel said. "One down, one to go."

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E-mail: lwarner@desnews.com