South Carolina’s GOP lawmakers want to withold millions from South Carolina State University after commencement speaker protest

A letter addressed to members of the state’s budget conference committee says there must be “punishment” for the actions of the SC State students whose protest led the school to rescind its request for Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to speak at commencement.

The political fallout from April’s protest over South Carolina Lt. Governor Pamela Evette’s canceled commencement speech continues to affect South Carolina State University.

Republican lawmakers have moved forward with plans to withhold $5M from SC State, weeks after the school backed off plans to have Evette at its 2026 commencement. Students were visibly angered by the prospect of Evette speaking, citing past remarks in which she referred to students as a “woke mob” and said her views do not align with those of the university and its student body. School officials said they would not have Evette as a commencement speaker due to security concerns.

According to WIS, the news station received a letter attributed to several state Republicans in the General Assembly, addressed to members of the budget conference committee, urging that $5 million not be allotted to the school.

“This issue is not about whether South Carolina State University is an HBCU,” Rep. Melissa Oremus said. “It’s about whether a publicly funded university should allow a small group of students to decide which viewpoints are acceptable to hear.”

The move is the second such urging by state Republicans to withhold funding for the state’s only publicly funded historically Black college and university. In May, Republicans, with Evette’s blessing, sent a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bruce Bannister echoing similar concerns.

“The fact that the university caved into their demands and cancelled the speech is the problem here,” a portion of the letter reads. “It is a horrible example and precedent when a publicly funded university caves in to the wishes of a few students to cancel a speaker and limits the right of an entire student body to hear the words of someone just because they don’t like the politics of that person. This cannot be tolerated. It wouldn’t matter whether this was Clemson, USC, the College of Charleston, Winthrop, or any other public school; it would still not be acceptable. If we want to prevent this from happening, there must be a punishment that comes along with denying free speech at our public schools.”

House_Letter_SCSTATE by joshua.hemphillgray