The week before I left for college I decided I would read through all of the Yelp and Facebook reviews of my university. It was a poor decision, to say the least, within 20 minutes I was bawling because I now believed I would be going to what one person called “a degree mill university.” Shortly thereafter, I embarked upon what can best be described as a whirlwind two-year adventure full of friendship, growth and opportunity. Needless to say, I learned my lesson and I never felt the need to look back at those reviews, at least not until about a month ago.

By now you have more than likely heard snippets of the ongoing Milo Yiannopoulos saga as he makes his tour across college campuses in the United States. Milo, a self-proclaimed expert on social issues, has gained notoriety through his career as a journalist and entrepreneur. His words and viewpoints resonate deeply with a niche of citizens in this world that I did not even believe existed.

In May, Milo came to my campus and, for a lack of better words, all hell broke lose. The event, hosted by the DePaul College Republicans, was shut down and the actions of students and community members following Milo’s appearance threatened the well-being and safety of DePaulians. Since then, my peers and I have been dealing with the never-ending aftermath of this event.

In a month’s time over 14,000 one-star reviews from people all around the world have been plastered onto DePaul’s public Facebook page. One evening, I spent hours angrily typing away at my keyboard defending my university by arguing with middle-aged men who commented on my five-star Facebook review of DePaul.

Here’s what I learned: these men and women strongly believed they could control the truth about my experiences at DePaul. They’ll toss in a few key phrases like “bleeding heart liberal” or “crybaby” or “fascists” and immediately think they have invalidated the opposition. Milo, himself, is problematic, but the real issue here lies in the power that he gives to his supporters — he grants his squad of followers the power to believe the lives and stories of others are immediately worth less than theirs based on a superiority complex that is rooted in picking apart liberal stereotypes and promoting conservative ideologies.

I wish I could tell you that this realization was the end of this ongoing Milo soap opera.

In spite of the grueling conversations that await our student body when we return to campus and the impending election season, I thought the worst of the Milo storm had passed. At least until last week when Milo’s tour dates for the fall were announced and DePaul was one of them. Students were quickly informed that DePaul had denied the request of the College Republicans to host Milo.

Outrage ensued, again.

Milo’s supporters flocked to the internet, and by Saturday we became the No. 1 trending topic on Facebook for denying Milo and the College Republicans their right to an event.

Thousands of Milo’s supporters have expressed the deep pain that has been brought to them as a result of DePaul’s ban on Milo. It is not my place to deny them neither their opinion nor their pain, but I do hope they’re doing all right. Since they are such empathic citizens of society, they must be feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders at such a rocky time in our world.

Now, according to Vice President of Student Affairs, Eugene Zdziarski, Milo will not be at DePaul because it is a safety concern to the students on our campus.

This ban on Milo has brought forth a slew of questions surrounding the issue, most prominently, are DePaul’s actions a violation of the First Amendment?

Let me ask you, what does free speech mean if your “free” speech invalidates the existence of others?

What does your free speech mean if you denounce an entire population of people?

Are you being thought provoking or in the words of Milo, cancerous?

I’m not a political science or constitutional expert and I won’t pretend to be, but anyone can tell you that our constitution isn’t doing too hot right now. In fact, the lines our Founding Fathers drew are becoming more and more blurred and conditional to anyone who isn’t a straight, white male.

Am I deeply pained and saddened that the College Republicans will not have their speaker come to campus and discuss why feminism is cancer?

No.

I must be the epitome of anti-American right now. Actually, according to Milo’s followers I now fit the description of a cancerous, overly sensitive female who cannot handle the internet and probably hates gays, too.

Look, I’m OK with Milo not being at DePaul because he is the farthest thing from Vincentian that I could imagine.

Does that make him less of a person in my eyes? No. Even though Milo runs a problematic campaign, it doesn’t make him less of a human; it just makes him a human with a differing perspective from mine. A perspective that values my life a little less than others. Now, I am all for differing perspectives, as are most level-headed members of society. If someone’s opinion is going to help me grow in one way or another, by all means, bring it on. But I’ll tell you this, my peers and I don’t pay $50,000 a year to be openly condemned on our campus by the perspective of a visitor. DePaul is a haven for many. It is a safe space Yeah, I said it) where students can come together and create plans of action for the future. This is what St. Vincent DePaul lived for; helping the marginalized, sharing stories, and standing together to fight injustices.

Ahh, but what about the College Republicans? Aren’t they the minority here? Yes, they are the minority because they are the only group of people at DePaul that believe it is a wise choice to bring someone who sparks so much hate in their supporters to our campus.

I’m OK with them being the minority in that respect.

But by all means, if the College Republicans really want to have these conversations nothing is stopping them. Why don’t they hold student panels and talk among the student body before bringing Milo onto our campus? If the College Republicans cared about dialogue and conversations on controversial issues, we would know. We would know because they would be hosting their own student-led, student-mediated discussions on why feminism is cancer and why it is an injustice to be gay in our society.

If they’re going to exercise their First Amendment right they might as well utter the words themselves instead of hiding behind a self-proclaimed celebrity.

Here’s the thing, DePaul on its best day is nowhere near perfect, but it is an institution that has consistently done great things for the communities around us. The growing list of our alumni is proof of that. You can go into any nonprofit or major business in the city of Chicago and ask them what they think of their DePaul employees. You can go into any Chicago public school and ask the principal about their DePaul teachers. Go ahead, ask them, email them, call them and then I dare you to tell me we are a bunch of worthless scoundrels again.

To all of the Facebook aficionados who have nothing better to do than chastise a university you have never in your life had any real interaction with, you cannot and will not ever control the narrative of the story that DePaulians have lived for over a century, and you will certainly never be able to tarnish the legacy that St. Vincent DePaul has garnered in the past four centuries.

At the end of the day it’s not about Milo and his followers, it’s not about the College Republicans and it’s not about a raging free speech debate. It’s about the fact that this university has a mission, we are here to educate students on topics that will provide them with the skills to help communities in need. If you’re not interested in being a part of that then don’t be, but don’t complain when we fiercely protect that mission.

I stand by our mission. And I will stand by DePaul.