Two civil rights movement leaders will together get paid $30,000 for speaking in the Dr. William G. Anderson Lecture Series “Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey,” sponsored by the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
According to official documents provided by Laura Probyn, Public Relations Director of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Rev. Al Sharpton and singer Harry Belafonte will cash a combined amount that equals more than one year of in-state tuition.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, who already participated as one of the speakers in the lecture series, will not get paid because he is a congressman and cannot accept payment, Probyn said.
According to copies of the contract, a total of $25,000 plus meals and travel expenses “for two” will be billed to MSU by Belafonte.
An initial payment of $12,500 was made on June 30, 2014. A second payment of $12,500 will be made Feb. 25, the contract says.
In perspective, Belafonte is getting paid $2,550 more for one visit than the combined total of MSU’s in-state tuition and room and board added — according to MSU Office of Admissions website, the cost of in-state tuition and room and board totals $22,450.
In Sharpton’s case, the reverend will cash in $5,000 for his participation on Feb. 26.
According to Sharpton’s contract, “(MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine External Programs Office) will cover meals and travel expenses.”
When asked if it was problematic to bring Sharpton as a speaker, Probyn said the university is a place to have dissenting opinions.
“What we believe is that the university is a place that should exist to support all points of view,” Probyn said. “We know that not everyone is going to agree with Rev. Sharpton’s views, and we respect that.”
Sharpton has been involved in a lot of controversies, many of them sparked by commentaries made by Sharpton himself that some considered racist.
But Sharpton and Belafonte are the latest examples of MSU paying exorbitant amount of money to speakers.
In December, controversial author and columnist George Will was paid $47,500 to speak at the winter commencement ceremonies.
Will’s participation stirred protests from different organizations on campus after a comment Will made in one of his columns where he claimed the “supposed campus epidemic of rape” is being pushed by progressivism in America, and has made “victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges.”
