Turning Point USA, the conservative student organization founded by Charlie Kirk, hosted a debate event at the University of Oregon EMU Amphitheater on Wednesday, Oct. 28 with conservative YouTube personality Alex Stein.
UO sent a notification out to students and staff on Wednesday morning, warning of increased police presence for the event. Officers were present in and around the EMU Amphitheater, and were stationed atop nearby campus buildings.
A group of protestors marched into the amphitheater at the beginning of the event, and stayed throughout to push back against Stein’s views.
Katie Rueker is a senior at UO, and said she didn’t know about the event before being warned of increased police presence on campus by a professor.
“I think that the university should have done a better job about letting their students and faculty and everyone in their community know that an event like this was going to be happening,” Rueker said.
Several other UO students said they also didn’t hear about the event until the police presence notification was sent out.
Rueker said although she disagrees with Turning Point, she wouldn’t engage with the event because she believes it was organized to instigate arguments with students.
“These people are professional rage baiters,” Rueker said. “All they want is to instigate.”
After the event, UO said three protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and harassment. It also said if the investigation finds the arrested protesters are connected to the university, they will be investigated for Student Conduct Code violations or employee ethics policies.
