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The University of Maryland does not plan to change its events policies that allow it to charge security fees for events, despite pushback from a national free speech group.
The public university in College Park charged the campus Turning Point USA group nearly $150 for a security contractor to check bags during an event with Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. The university charged the group for four hours of work, although the event only lasted an hour.
In response, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression raised concerns to the school.
However, the university stood by its policies, although a representative for FIRE said Turning Point is being treated unfairly.
“Generally speaking, universities may set security fees for event hosts, provided that these fees are based on reasonable, content- and viewpoint-neutral criteria,” Charlotte Arneson, FIRE’s campus rights advocacy program officer, told The Fix via email.
While university policies allow it to charge for the security fee, she said the school “also has an unwritten exception for events held in certain designated outdoor spaces, where UMD will absorb all security costs instead of the event hosts.”
Arneson also told The Fix that FIRE has since requested “that UMD amend its event policy to clarify how its event security fees are determined and when student groups are required to cover these fees.”
The University of Maryland has not responded to multiple media inquiries from The Fix asking for updates on this issue in the past month, including two emails and a phone message.
However, the school previously explained its policy in an Oct. 2025 letter to FIRE, soon after the actual event.
The requirements are “entirely reasonable in light of the objective assessment of the referenced event and the security risks associated with it,” Associate General Counsel Christopher Lord wrote in a response letter.
The campus attorney noted the school was not charging for the cost of University of Maryland police. The university provided a list of some other recent events where it charged security fees similar to Turning Point USA’s event.
The security cost requirements, Lord wrote, “is not based on TPUSA’s or Mr. Phillip’s anticipated message and is in no way unique” to this particular event.
Lord also pointed out that Turning Point USA itself requested help with security.
Arneson, with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the group has regularly had issues with security fees on college campuses.
“FIRE is continuing to monitor schools’ responses to campus speech in the wake of Kirk’s death, as over the years, FIRE has tracked far too many instances of campuses burdening controversial speech with hefty security fees,” Arneson told The Fix. “Some have resulted in First Amendment lawsuits, resulting in costly settlements for the institutions involved. FIRE has also often seen institutions use security concerns — without legitimate evidence — to silence expression on campus.”
Arneson said the university has a responsibility to protect students’ rights to free speech and cautioned against censorship via security costs.
“Schools have a moral and legal obligation to redouble their efforts to protect free speech as well as their campus community,” Arneson said.
“However, administrators must not pass unreasonable security costs along to speakers or use security concerns as a pretext to cancel a speaker’s appearance,” she said. “Rewarding threats of violence by taxing speech or silencing speakers will only invite more threats and more violence.”
