Just days before his planned visit to the Carrier Dome, Michael Moore is at the center of yet another controversy.

California State University San Marcos, a public institution, canceled Moore’s Oct. 13 lecture, saying it cannot use state money to finance such an undeniably partisan speaker, CSUSM Director of Communications Rick Moore said.

Because this is an election year, a conservative speaker would need to be found in order for the university to portray balanced viewpoints to its student population, Rick Moore said.

‘Other options could have been used, but we were not able to find someone in time to balance Moore,’ Rick Moore said. ‘We weren’t sure we could’ve done this legally. A private party could’ve come back and tried to sue.’

Michael Moore was also scheduled to speak last October at CSUSM, but because of forest fires in the area, his lecture was canceled. Rick Moore said last year’s lecture was not an issue at the time.

‘Moore had not politicized himself last year, but we had to be careful because now we are in the middle of a competitive election,’ Rick Moore said.

Rick Moore said that before the lecture was canceled, many of the conservative students on campus were angry that Michael Moore was coming to their school. After the cancellation, however, many complaints from the more liberal students were heard.

Thomas Keck, a professor of political science at SU, said the proximity of the election makes the issue trickier. Because Moore has already affiliated himself with John Kerry’s campaign, it makes him appear extremely partisan.

But Keck says CSUSM’s conclusion still wasn’t the right one.

‘Universities have the responsibility to be open to free discourse,’ he said. ‘They should not be in the habit of showing one view, but that still doesn’t mean they cannot do that at all.’

After the cancellation of this year’s Michael Moore lecture, Associated Students, CSUSM’s student government, began raising funds from private donors to bring Moore to their campus, Rick Moore said.

Here some SU students had similar sentiment about Moore’s cancellation at CSUSM.

‘I’d be pissed,’ said Michelle Sager, a sophomore art education major. ‘I want to see him speak, knowing that he’s a liberal.’

Published on September 16, 2004 at 12:00 pm