Students Boost Activist’s Pay for Duke Debate

NORTHRIDGE —  Cal State Northridge student leaders agreed Thursday to pay a Los Angeles civil rights activist the same $4,000 speaker’s fee promised to former Klan Grand Wizard David Duke for a Sept. 25 campus debate on affirmative action.

Joe Hicks, head of the Los Angeles-based Multicultural Collaborative, had agreed to accept $1,000 for the debate--$3,000 less than the amount promised to Duke.

But on Thursday, Student Senate President Vladimir Cerna said that Hicks and Duke would each be paid $4,000 for their appearance. The money will come from a special student fund set aside for campus speakers, Cerna said.

Hicks said he did not call CSUN students asking for a higher fee. He said he learned that Duke was getting paid more from news reports that reached him while traveling in Israel.

“I received questions about the disparity in pay,” Hicks said Thursday. “I did not want the issue of who was getting paid what to become a distraction.”

Hicks said Thursday that he had originally agreed to take less than his usual speaking fee of $4,000 as a courtesy to students.

“I wanted them to take into account what their budget would allow,” Hicks said. “I wanted to forgo the money because I thought it was more important for someone to take on Duke.”

The civil rights leader expressed surprise at the widespread publicity involving the Duke debate.

Last week, University of California Regent Ward Connerly and Gov. Pete Wilson blasted CSUN students and campus administrators for inviting Duke, charging the event was a ploy to paint Proposition 209 as a racist measure.

Proposition 209, which appears on the November ballot, would end racial and gender preferences by state and local government agencies in hiring, promotion, contracts and for college admissions.

“They are clearly reacting to potential damage of having Duke linked to their ballot measure,” Hicks said. “I sympathize with their plight. But the fact is he [Duke] has been historically linked with attempts to eliminate affirmative action nationwide.”

Duke, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Louisiana, had no comment when asked about the students’ decision to increase the fee for Hicks.

Duke told the New Orleans Times-Picayune last week that Hicks was receiving less money because “he’s probably not as well-known as I am.”