More than 30 protestors from the University of Oregon and surrounding community attended the Pacifica Forum’s Jan. 8 meeting to argue against the group’s views, which protestors see as inciting hate and creating an unsafe environment on campus. The group meets on campus but is not an official student organization.
 
Though the meeting carried the theme “Everything You Wanted to Know about Pacifica Forum but were Afraid to Ask,” many protesters’ questions were met with condescension.
 
The Pacifica Forum labels itself a free-speech organization, though some have expressed concern in the past over the alleged white-supremacist tilt of its speakers. The group has also hosted speakers that denied the Holocaust, The Southern Poverty Law Center categorizes the Forum as a “white nationalist hate group.”

Some students reported that the group began its Dec. 11 meeting with Nazi salutes.
 
The tense meeting brought at least one student to tears and led another to say to the Pacifica supporters “I am a student at my campus and I fear you.”
 
The group’s recent actions have caused the University administration to take a second look at its policy on providing meeting space for groups. The Forum is able to meet on campus because founder Orval Etter is a former professor at the school.
 
“We are addressing our policies about how best to proceed with our mission and values while safeguarding the campus community and the values of free speech,” said University Vice President of Institutional Equity and Diversity Charles Martinez in a letter to The Eugene Weekly.


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