UCLA cancelled a political education festival that would have occurred at Pauley Pavilion this Saturday because it said the event’s organizers failed to pay on time for use of the facility.
Free and Equal Elections Foundation, an organization that aims to “bring political power back to the people through education,” organized a United We Stand Festival to take place Saturday night. The event is scheduled to have dozens of speakers, including radio host Larry King, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s, founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan and other politicians and prominent figures.
As of press time, there was no venue set for the event, but UCLA said it is working with Free and Equal to find another venue on campus for the United We Stand Festival. Christina Tobin, founder and chair of Free and Equal, said the organization has other venues in the Los Angeles area where it could hold the event.
About 2,000 people had bought tickets for the event and were refunded after Free and Equal was notified of the venue cancellation, Tobin said. They will be invited to repurchase their tickets once a new venue is set, she added.
In a statement, UCLA said it cancelled the United We Stand Festival because Free and Equal was required to submit payment for the use of Pauley Pavilion by this Monday for the event to proceed. According to the statement, the organization said May 5 it would wire the funds to campus by noon on Tuesday.
When campus officials did not receive the funds by noon, they cancelled the event.
Shortly afterward, officials moved an event for admitted transfer students to Pauley Pavilion from the John Wooden Center.
UCLA said Free and Equal’s payment was eventually received, however, but did not give an indication in its statement that it would return part of the payment to Free and Equal.
Free and Equal had wired about $90,500 to UCLA for use of Pauley Pavilion, Tobin said.
“We don’t have the intention of leaving this campus,” Tobin said. “Students deserve to see these people. UCLA is historically about dialogue, the truth, and this is kind of the counter to that.”
UCLA administration dropped the ball, on purpose. Shame on you.
This article is full of inaccuracies. Here’s why:
At the time of writing, Free and Equal sold over 5,000+ tickets, not 2,000 as mentioned here.
Also, tickets are now being sold for free, and Tobin never mentioned that tickets were being “repurchased” at the new venue.
Could this be a political move? Perhaps. UCLA is considered a heavy hitter. Heavy Hitters are the 140 biggest overall donors to federal elections since the 1990 election cycle, as compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000406&cycle=2012
This is spin journalism at it’s finest.
Could you please tell me the actual details I want to know that are missing from the article? Is the event still happening and if so, where and do we still need to purchase/attain a “free” ticket …and if so, where from?
Cancellation of a political event event at the last minute by UCLA just doesn’t sound right. I didn’t buy a ticket because I couldn’t locate a program for the event anywhere on line. Then tickets were being sold at half price and then it was announced that admission would be free and the event was being relocated to another location at the same time. Very confusing. I hope that a full explanation will be forthcoming.
My hunch is that this event was sabotaged in the effort to prevent it from happening because Richard Gage, AIA, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, is one of the scheduled speakers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFaVmVpEIZ8 It’s back on, per video here.