Invitation to Moore cost UVSC $200,000

OREM — Utah Valley State College President William Sederburg estimates the school lost close to $200,000 in donations and a pricey art collection as a result of the Michael Moore controversy that shook the Orem campus this fall.

But the college, which drew fierce fire from political conservatives for inviting the "Fahrenheit 9/11" film- maker to speak on campus, typically takes in $4 million to $5 million in gifts each year, UVSC spokesman Derek Hall said, so that figure is as fraction of the school's donation total.

Some of the money lost, including the art donation, also represents promised donations or money the college had yet to receive.

Sederburg takes comfort in saying that those who withdrew their money or pledges weren't true supporters of UVSC.

"The people we have lost are people who really want us to be BYU," said Sederburg, referring to the LDS Church-owned school in neighboring Provo. "But these are people who, down the road, would have probably pulled out anyway."

Confusing UVSC — a four-year public college — with BYU — a private, religious-based university — turned "the Michael Moore-Sean Hannity thing" into a moral debate, he said.

"We're not against the LDS Church," Sederburg said. "But we're also not BYU. We want to define our own niche and find where we fit in."

Sederburg says he believes the role of a publicly funded institution of higher education is to provide a forum for diverse ideas. While he thinks it is unfortunate that donations were pulled, the controversy sparked a lot of debate before the Nov. 2 general election.

Professors revamped their class projects to involve the controversy, he said.

"It started out negative, but as people began to digest it, it turned into a real positive," he said. "We came to a general consensus that the issues like freedom of speech and academic expression won out."

Still, Sederburg remains unhappy about hundreds of e-mails sent to the school. Those messages contained threats to withdraw donations, physically injure students who invited Moore and even boycott grandchildren's graduations.

While Sederburg is no Moore fan, he said those threats didn't foster civil discourse.

"This is a community that knows what they believe, and they want to act on what they believe," he said.

Sederburg concedes that UVSC made some mistakes in handling the Moore controversy, which spawned a visit by conservative talk show host Sean Hannity to balance political viewpoints.

Hall said the college didn't do a good job of spreading information to UVSC faculty and staff.

And UVSC now requires student government leaders to consult the administration before selecting speakers or spending large amounts of money.

But that doesn't mean they won't stir up controversy in the future, Hall said.

"It's all about the students, and we want to remind people about that," Hall said. "Students are No. 1."

When asked if he would do it all again, Sederburg replied:

"I think, by and large, UVSC is stronger because of it, but do I want to go out and invite Michael Moore back for tomorrow? No."

---

E-mail: lwarner@desnews.com