Though his controversial blog of sexploits is banned by JHGuestnet, Hopkins paid for students to get the full Tucker Max "experience" in person from his speech on Wednesday.
While Max spoke to a crowded Shriver Hall, around 170 people went to a dinner and discussion at One World Cafe to protest his presence on campus.
Max opened his speech by saying, "There's enough nerds in here for a Star Trek convention."
Max quickly identified the absence of any protesters.
"They'd be f--king pissed off if they knew how much I was getting paid for this story. I'd like to buy a new f--king car with what they're paying me. It's kind of embarrassing," Max said.
The exact amount paid to Max could not be verified. According to Dea Lovy, a senior and co-chair of the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP), it is standard procedure not to release the payments amounts given to speakers.
However, the use of Hopkins' money to bring Max here is exactly what upset senior Yasin Akbari, who, along with fellow senior Kate Mercogliano. spearheaded the efforts to prevent Max from speaking.
"If Tucker Max were coming to campus to speak for free or was being paid out of pocket by students who directly wanted to see him, then I would be opposed to things he says, but it would not be directly using my tuition dollars to fund him," she said.
Akbari criticized the University for giving him a platform.
"Once the school starts funneling my tuition dollars directly to the HOP, the HOP has a moral obligation to provide programming that is not offensive and that does not include hate speech," she said.
Freshman Charlie Natola agreed.
"It is disrespectful for the school to use our tuition money like this," he said.
Freshman Sophie Solomon felt the same way, which is why she decided to go to the One World Café event instead.
"I'm paying for something I don't support," she said.
Back at the speech, Max began by telling a story in his typical material.
"If you're a girl, this is probably why you shouldn't go to Cancun for spring break, and when you have kids, if you have daughters, don't let them go to Cancun for spring break," he said.
He elaborated about how he took a six-week departure amid classes from Duke Law School to live in Cancun. Max explained that after developing a large tolerance for while in Cancun, he challenged a group of girls to a non-traditional drinking game.
"You six do a shot, one shot a piece, and then I'll do six shots, one for each of you. It took a few minutes for me to explain this to them. They go to Big Ten, give them a break," he said.
This game resulted in his passing out, waking up confused next to a girl who asked, "Tucker, why is there a condom in my ass?"
His response: "I don't even know who you are."
Max used this story to take a jab at critics who say he promotes "rape culture."
"I guess she raped me, because I was too drunk to consent," Max said.
"The moral of this story is don't go to Cancun for spring break if you're a girl," he said.
Akbari first decided to protest this event a month and a half ago.
A classmate who serves on the HOP asked how she felt about the HOP inviting Tucker Max to capus. Akbari had read his work, and felt it was misogynistic and hateful.
She advised against hosting Max, saying, "I really feel like it would be a bad solution for the Hop to bring him to Hopkins, especially in light of the increase in sexual assaults on campus."
She knew then that, "If the HOP did bring him, I would feel a moral obligation to protest the event."
And protest she has.
Akbari e-mailed a large group of students. Last Thursday and Friday, they wrote to administrators.
The message they conveyed included the statement that, "The things he says degrade everything our University stands for."
That weekend, the group of students publicized the situation to parents who were here for Parents' Weekend.
"We raised awareness among parents as to where their tuition dollars were going . . . and who Tucker Max was. Then many parents sent letters."
Monday, they hosted a form-letter writing campaign on the breezeway. In six hours, they wrote 355 letters to Ray Gillian, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity.
Akbari described the letters as, "tremendous outpouring of support for women's rights at Hopkins."
Gillian released a statement saying that on a personal level, he, "share[s] in the sentiments that Tucker Max's routine is very crude and offensive, and anything but comedic."
However, his office determined the speech was not in violation of the Anti-Harassment policy.
"Student organizations like the HOP are not told by the University administration who they can and cannot invite to campus," Gillian said.
Akbari hosted an event at One World Cafe during the time that Max gave his speech. Along with providing food and drinks, the event sought to discuss issues of equality and tolerance and women's rights andsafety.
According to Dean of Undergraduate Education Paula Burger, the One World Café event was, "An attempt to provide an alternative to the Tucker Max event and a place for different ideas to be considered."
She explained that Susan Boswell, Dean of Student Life, had offered to reimburse students who attended the alternate event if they spent money on food.
Boswell could not be reached for comment by press time.
Since the event was not prevented, Akbari thinks the HOP should apologize for its decision to bring Max to Hopkins.
"The Hop needs to take accountability for inviting him to campus, and it should probably in some way issue an apology to all the women and racial minorities on campus," Akbari said.
"Whenever we were initially planning, we didn't really foresee any controversy. Of course that has since happened and we've dealt with it as we've seen appropriate," Hop co-chair and BME Senior Chris Mihalsky said.
The group voted to uphold the event. "We listened to a few of the main people who were offended by the event, and we heard what they had to say, and as a group The HOP, which is about 30 or 40 members, voted on whether or not we wanted to continue the event," Mihalsky said.
Students in attendance generally found Max's speech milder than they had anticipated.
After his opening story, Max's speech focused more on the necessity for each individual to "blaze [their] own trail" in life.
"It was pretty funny. A lot more like self-help. I thought it was just going to be stories about him banging girls and stuff. But it was good. It was funny," Tom O'Donnell, a freshman, said.
"I thought it was good. I thought he did a great job expressing his opinions. I definitely think it was appropriate [for the HOP to pay to bring him], because he brought a different message than what people [expected]," junior Casey Blythe said.
"I was going to into it thinking it was just going to be sex stories and stuff, but I really liked the idea that he was giving everyone a personal message. And he's right, a--holes do finish first," Theodore Generous, a sophomore, said.
"It wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but it was pleasant. I liked that he actually had some motivational speaking, instead of just crude humor. I did [enjoy it]. I think the protesting ahead of the event was kind of meaningless, because he didn't say anything that was overly rude or demeaning to women," freshman Timari Yow said.
"It wasn't what I expected. It was more about your life and doing things that you want to do, which for him was writing about hooking up with girls, which is not what I expected. I was expecting sex stories . . . It was more about how to live your life. He had a valuable message and he's someone we'd actually listen to, instead of just some boring speaker," freshman Brittany Smith said.
Even though she had heard the speech was relatively mild, Akbari still felt the protest was necessary.
"I think that it is still worth protesting bringing speakers to campus who undeniably have an extremely long record of hate speech, and who have obviously made no attempt to rescind statements or change their attitudes," Akbari said.
"The fact is that this is a man who has reached the place where Hopkins pays him tens of thousands of dollars for an hour of his time by building a career of slurring women, racial minorities and the disabled."
Evan Lazerowitz, the Vice President of the Student Government Association (SGA), agreed with the general assessment of the event and seemed pleased with the success of the event.
He felt that the event itself was distinct from Max's more controversial past.
"The concerns that people opposed to the event brought up were very valid issues that need to be addressed on campus . . . issues like rape and sexual assault," he said.
"But I didn't see any connection between those issues and the event I just sat through . . . most of the objections were based on content that didn't occur."
He acknowledged that the fact that many of the individuals who opposed Max's public persona would probably not change their opinion of him after his speech, but that people who were simply concerned with the content he would present at Hopkins might be willing to re-evaluate their opinions of him.
Ultimately, he did not believe the controversy surround this event would cause a major shift in policy regarding the HOP inviting speakers.
"It's not our job to sit in on every HOP meeting and say who they can and can't invite," he said.
"And their job is to find someone who appeals to the student body . . . and the judge of that is who attends their events."
He mentioned that Shriver was filled to capacity for the event. Over 1,400 students were in attendance.
