Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

Ben Shapiro is slated to speak at Yale next month on Oct. 7 at an event hosted by the Buckley Institute. 

The event will take place on the one year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and Shapiro is expected to discuss campus reactions to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. During the 2023–24 academic year, the war in Gaza sent ripples through the Yale community as students grappled with the aftermath of Hamas’ attacks and the following humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Shapiro is a journalist, author, media personality and creator and host of “the Daily Wire,” a right-wing media outlet, and is currently the host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” a daily political podcast and live radio show. Shapiro has over seven million subscribers on YouTube.

Shapiro is known for supporting controversial views on issues surrounding race, abortion and transgender rights, among others. Clips of Shapiro’s controversial statements in interviews and debates often go viral on social media. 

“I would like to encourage people who disagree with Mr. Shapiro to make an effort to attend the event, and to ask tough questions,” Buckley President Trevor MacKay ’25 wrote to the News. 

The event is sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation, an organization that assists conservative students on campuses across America to “find support, promote conservatism, and take action,” per its website. The YAF has previously brought conservative speakers to Yale through the Buckley Institute, such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

Shapiro frequently attends speaker events on college campuses. He previously came to Yale in 2016, where he discussed the state of free speech on campuses and his opposition to affirmative action.

Shapiro’s visit to Yale is part of a wider speaking tour with the YAF. After the Buckley event, he is scheduled to speak at the University of California, Los Angeles, Cornell University and Vanderbilt University. 

Spencer Brown, chief YAF communications officer, wrote that the foundation is bringing Shapiro to Yale and other colleges in line with its mission to provide “in-demand conservative voices” on campuses where he claims traditional conservative viewpoints are “rarely taught.” 

“Following the radical displays at many schools last spring, students at Yale wanted to bring Shapiro’s message to their peers,” Brown wrote to the News. 

Last fall, pro-Palestine student groups organized several large-scale protests and demonstrations over Israel’s military operation in Gaza. In April, students set up encampments on Beinecke Plaza and Cross Campus to protest Yale’s ties to military weapons manufacturers, resulting in the arrests of 46 Yale students by the end of the semester. 

MacKay wrote that he thinks it possible some students will protest Shapiro. 

“I applaud those that do so in a respectful manner consistent with the Woodward Report and Yale regulations,” he wrote. “Healthy protest is a bedrock of a healthy campus political environment.”

The Yale Office of the Secretary recently cracked down on encampments by updating University guidelines on free expression and on-campus gatherings to include new policies such as a mandatory end time for campus events, a prohibition on sleeping outdoors overnight and a ban on projection images on cross-campus and Beinecke Plaza. 

Additionally, an administrator with a badge identifying her as a “free expression facilitator” has been present at two recent student-run vigils concerning the Israel-Hamas war. It is unclear whether the event will incite protests, and what the University’s free expression measures will be for the event should there be protests.

The event will be held in Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall 114.