{"id":1448846,"date":"2022-04-21T10:16:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T14:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1448846"},"modified":"2022-04-21T10:16:51","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T14:16:51","slug":"community-college-pays-the-cost-of-20-students-tuition-for-celeb-diversity-lectures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/community-college-pays-the-cost-of-20-students-tuition-for-celeb-diversity-lectures\/","title":{"rendered":"Community College Pays The Cost Of 20 Students\u2019 Tuition For Celeb \u2018Diversity\u2019 Lectures"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcommunity-college-pays-the-cost-of-20-students-tuition-for-celeb-diversity-lectures%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1448846&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A Michigan community college spent roughly $124,000 \u2013 the average cost of tuition for twenty students \u2013 to host speeches by left-wing activists, including Nikole Hannah-Jones, according to contracts obtained by The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>The speeches at Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC), part of a \u201cdiversity lecture series,\u201d were made throughout the 2021-2022 academic year. The school spent $25,000 for Hannah-Jones, the founder of the 1619 project, $40,000 for actor John Leguizamo, and $15,000 for a GOP-bashing appearance by Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown \u2014 plus more for others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople that are fighting against Critical Race Theory [CRT], they don\u2019t even know what it is,\u201d Brown said in her speech. \u201cThe bottom line is that it\u2019s not even included in the curriculum.\u201d Brown also claimed she was not mentioning it as a \u201cpartisan issue\u201d but criticized Republicans for passing an anti-CRT law in Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>Her organization, Black Voters Matter Fund, has adopted unpopular stances aligned with the \u201csocial justice\u201d movement accelerated during the riots in the summer of 2020. The George Soros-backed group gave roughly $50,000 to bail-fund groups in connection with this unrest, <a href=\"https:\/\/blackvotersmatterfund.org\/impact-report\/\">according<\/a> to its annual report. The group also works on \u201cresisting voter ID\u201d \u2014 an election policy that polls have found most Americans do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/reports\/monmouthpoll_us_062121\/\">not<\/a> support.<\/p>\n<p>Hannah-Jones, perhaps the most well-known of the group, has spoken at dozens of campuses in the past year. During her appearance, she lectured on systemic racism, according to the college\u2019s chief equity and inclusion officer, who said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlive.com\/news\/grand-rapids\/2022\/01\/pulitzer-prize-winner-nikole-hannah-jones-creator-1619-project-to-give-grcc-keynote-address.html\">prior<\/a> that GRCC sought a speaker to discuss \u201cintersectionality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leguizamo, who spoke for Latino Heritage Month in September, has called Latinos who support former President Donald Trump \u201croaches\u201d who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/john-leguizamo-latino-republicans-suffer-from-self-hate\">suffer<\/a> from \u201cself-hate.\u201d And Talib Kweli, who rose to stardom in the late 1990s, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CKMBdpusV9x\/?hl=en\">said<\/a> \u201call Republicans are complicit\u201d in the January 6 Capitol riot led by \u201cwhite supremacist terrorists.\u201d GRCC spent $18,800 for his April appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Speakers for GRCC\u2019s diversity series did not return requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to The Daily Wire, GRCC defended paying the speakers a combined six figures, noting that a large portion of funds came from partnerships and grants for diversity programming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGRCC, and its office of diversity, equity, and inclusion, firmly believes events and training opportunities related to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are instrumental in preparing students to be sought-after professionals in a global workforce that is diverse, culturally competent, and in need of rigorous critical thinkers,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>But questions remain about the lack of intellectual diversity in the speakers that were chosen.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Seely, a spokesperson for Michigan Conservative Coalition, says schools should provide an alternative perspective when hosting activities of certain political orientations.<\/p>\n<p>Seely sees \u201cuniversities basically weaponizing their ability to use taxpayer money, student tuition money, and grant money,\u201d and says administrators \u201cdo everything they can to stop conservative and religious leaders from speaking on campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kara Zupkus, a spokesperson for Young America\u2019s Foundation, agrees with Seely. The conservative nonprofit brings speakers to college campuses through its own funding and often has trouble coordinating with left-wing administrators.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, we often see the task of bringing conservative viewpoints to campus left to conservative student groups \u2014 without whom, these campuses simply would never have an alternative viewpoint to hear from,\u201d Zupkus told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>GRCC also compensated diversity series speakers at a markedly higher rate than it does for salaried employees, data obtained by The Daily Wire shows. The average salaried employee at the community college earns roughly $83,000 per year.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_368432\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-368432\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portion of the contract for actor John Leguizamo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>GRCC has hosted the lecture series for 27 years through its diversity, equity &#038; inclusion office, a spokesperson said. The office pulled in more than $96,000 in donations for fiscal years 2019 and 2020, public records show. Events are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n<p><em>Send story tips to Gabe Kaminsky at <\/em><a href=\"mailto:gekaminsky@protonmail.com\"><em>gekaminsky@protonmail.com<\/em><\/a><em>. Follow him <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gekaminsky\"><em>on Twitter<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is building up its investigative reporting team to bring you the stories the legacy media refuse to cover. Support journalism that matters and join one of the fastest-growing conservative media companies in America by becoming a Daily Wire member<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"> <em>today<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Michigan community college spent roughly $124,000 \u2013 the average cost of tuition for twenty students \u2013 to host speeches by left-wing activists, including Nikole Hannah-Jones, according to contracts obtained<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":1448849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1448846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1448846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1448849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1448846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1448846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1448846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}