UVSC to host Nader for Y. group

PROVO — The group of students planning an alternative to Brigham Young University's commencement next week have found a home — at Utah Valley State College in Orem.

Vice President Dick Cheney will speak Thursday at BYU's commencement in the Marriott Center at 4 p.m. and former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader will speak at UVSC's McKay Events Center at 7:30 p.m. Cheney's invitation to speak sparked protests in several quarters.

The alternative commencement group plans to attend Cheney's speech, then travel down University Parkway to hear from Nader, former U.S. Senate candidate Pete Ashdown and former Amnesty International director Jack Healey, said BYU student and event organizer Eric Bybee.

The students have raised $9,000 to pay for speaking fees, transportation and rental of the McKay Events Center. They said Friday in a press release that they need to raise another $11,000.

Nader lowered his speaking fee to $12,000 from $15,000. He had refused to speak at an outdoor venue, and the alternative commencement group was frustrated in its attempts to find a building in Provo to handle what it hopes will be 2,500 to 5,000 visitors, including busloads of Salt Lakers protesting Cheney's presence on the BYU campus.

Capacity at the McKay Events Center is 7,000.

Renting the building will cost at least $1,800, plus cleaning costs, McKay Events Center director Mark Hildebrand said.

The event will be free, Bybee said.

The Provo School District denied the group's requests to rent a school auditorium.

The group held a fund-raiser Friday night at the University Mall Cinemas in Orem, where they asked for donations from people who watched free screenings of "An Unreasonable Man," a documentary about Nader, and "This Divided State," a documentary about Michael Moore's visit to UVSC in 2004.

Conservative UVSC supporters and Utah County residents were angered by Moore's visits, and UVSC later paid to bring conservative talk show host Sean Hannity to campus as a counter move.

Bybee acknowledged that moving the alternative commencement to UVSC with Nader as the keynote speaker is a risk, but he said it conveys the message that the students involved believe creating a counterbalance to Cheney is important.