In 2024, SGA senator Riley Mahon and then-SGA president Marc Palumbo tried to orchestrate an on-campus event where Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein would speak at an educational Q&A session with the backing of SGA. This never happened.
Just a year later, Professor Bob Ross tried to open a discussion in his “Israel/Palestine: History, Geography and Politics” class with Steve Sosebee, co-founder and executive director of HEAL Palestine to the entire campus community. This also never happened.
The reason? Point Park’s policy on guest speaking events.
According to university administrators, Point Park has every right to deny access to a guest speaking event, including on grounds of neutrality.
“It is the practice of the university to not host candidates from any party, to be fair to all parties and those that support them,” Vice President of Student Affairs Keith Paylo said in an email in response to the Stein campaign event’s request for space. “That being said, we will not be offering space for this candidate and I would encourage you to pursue additional opportunities.”
According to Mahon, the point of bringing Stein onto campus was not just as a campaign event.
“We had talked a little bit about, ‘could we maybe sell merch or hand out yard signs?’” Mahon said. “But that was always not the primary thing. Like, we’ll do this if we’re allowed, but if we’re not, totally understandable.”
Additionally, Mahon said he and Palumbo were given the run-around for weeks but felt the event would be able to go forward after proper verifications were given.
But just two weeks before the event’s scheduled date, Mahon and Palumbo received the email stating the event would not take place due to the university’s rule on neutrality for people running for political office speaking at a public event.
“By that point, the stop in Pittsburgh had already been scheduled as part of the campaign tour, and we had two weeks left to organize a different event for [Stein],” Mahon said. “It was just disappointing that we didn’t get to have a forum for students, because I think it would have been a really cool thing for a lot of students who are interested in being more politically active.”
However, the application of neutrality varies.
During an SGA meeting in Jan. 2017, former mayor of Pittsburgh Bill Peduto was invited as a guest speaker while he was actively campaigning for a second term. Peduto was able to speak publicly at the SGA meeting, which is open to all students to participate and listen to, unlike a guest speaker in a class setting.
As for Ross, he said he was also not told about any potential problems, nor given any pushback against bringing Sosebee onto campus for a public event until the last minute.
“I went through the normal procedures with my department chair and department secretary to reserve a room,” Ross said. “Without any problems, we were able to reserve a room.”
Then, on the week of Sept. 24, Ross said he was notified Sosebee could only speak in class, not in an event open to the university.
“My understanding at first was they said there was some policy I didn’t follow, that I had to get administrative approval before the semester began,” Ross said. “That policy doesn’t exist.”
According to Ross, he received an email from Provost Shari Payne which outlined why the event was cancelled, citing a security concern “in light of recent occurrences of political violence on college campuses” which was brought forward along with a statement on the university having the right to control the use of its facilities.
Payne was unable to comment in time for publication.
Despite the security concern, Ross said he was never contacted about any potential threats or problems until the event was cancelled, and security had not been offered to students in his class or for Sosebee either.
“They just said there was a security concern brought forward, whatever that means,” Ross said. “And I don’t know what that means.”
Mahon was aware of the event with Sosebee being cancelled, which he said happened in a similar manner to his event with Stein getting axed.
“It now seems to me to be less of a miscommunication and more of a pattern,” Mahon said.
That pattern, Ross said, is a barrier to education and a disservice to students.
“To cancel this event is to actively prevent students from learning more about a part of the world that is undergoing a genocide right now,” Ross said. “The university is saying ‘no, you can’t learn about this’ from someone who is an expert and has decades of experience doing humanitarian work in Gaza. No, you cannot listen to him and hear him, which is just atrocious.”
In response, Ross emailed Payne along with Dean of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Becky Spritz, inquiring how to better prepare for administrative concerns in the future.
