Registered Student Organizations are welcome to invite guest speakers from off-campus. Officers are responsible for covering any expenses related to inviting a speaker. These costs include typical pass-through costs, such as emergency custodial fees, and may include space booking fees under certain circumstances. 

Events in which the speaker is a candidate for public office may require a full-price booking of space to meet UW restrictions on using state funds for campaign use. In these cases, the university is also obligated to provide equal opportunity for space and time to any political opposition for the office.

Likewise, under UW Presidential Executive Order 23, the university president may prescribe conditions when a guest is considered controversial. These may include equal time from a speaker with an opposing point of view, requiring public comment and exchange, or restricting public comment and exchange. 

Excerpts from Executive Order 23 are below. The full text can be found on a dedicated page in the UW Policy Directory.

Executive Order 23:

  • As an institution of higher learning devoted to the search for truth in a democratic society, the University is dedicated to the maintenance and expression of a spirit of free inquiry. For its students, accordingly, it promotes the development of an atmosphere of open exchange, and of conditions conducive to critical evaluation of divergent points of view.
  • The University also recognizes and accepts a responsibility to ensure that such inquiry is conducted in a manner which furthers the educational objectives of the institution; namely, the open-minded, objective evaluation and dissemination of knowledge.
  • Student organizations officially registered at the University may, therefore, invite speakers to the campus to address their own membership and other interested students and staff providing suitable space is available and there is no interference with the regularly scheduled programs of the University. The appearance of such speakers on campus implies neither approval nor disapproval of them or their viewpoints by the University. In the case of speakers who are candidates for political office, equal opportunities shall be available to opposing candidates if desired by them. Speakers are subject to the normal considerations for law and order and to the specific limitations imposed by the state institution.
  • In order to ensure an atmosphere of open exchange and to ensure that the educational objectives of the University are not obscured, the President, in the case attended by extreme emotional feeling, may prescribe conditions for the conduct of the meeting, such as requiring permission for comments and questions from the floor. Likewise, the President may encourage the appearance of one or more additional speakers at the meeting so that other points of view may be expressed.
  • The President shall prescribe the length of time and form of notice required prior to the holding of all meetings to be addressed by outside speakers and may designate representatives to recommend conditions for the conduct of particular meetings.