On April 12, Miami University students gathered around the seal in protest of Dan Harmon’s scheduled presence at the University Lecture Series. Harmon had previously been scheduled to speak at 7:30 pm that evening on the topic of “Comedy in the Modern Media Landscape: From Community to Rick and Morty.” However, days earlier on April 9, the Miami University Lecture Series released a statement on their Instagram announcing the cancellation of the virtual lecture due to an “unforeseen conflict in Mr. Harmon’s schedule.”
Some student organizations expressed concerns with regard to Harmon’s past behavior. The student organization, Sexual Assault Survivor Support (SASS) in conjuntion with the Diversity Affairs Council (DAC) opposed Harmon’s scheduled event at Miami. The reasoning was that Harmon’s prior sexual harassment of a female writer and other offensive actions by Harmon made him an innaproporiate and harmful speaker for the Miami community. An explanation of Harmon’s incident and an apology was released on his podcast Harmontown back in 2018 regarding his inappropriate behavior toward Megan Ganz, a writer and former co-worker of Harmon’s at the network sitcom Community. Ganz later publicly accepted the apology on her personal Twitter page.
Despite the apology for the incident, SASS released a statement on March 13, which read, “While he may hold value as a speaker in his craft, we cannot separate a speaker’s content from their reputation as an individual. Despite pleas to cancel this event and find a more appropriate speaker to appear during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, all requests were met with a common lack of action.” The organization’s disapproval with the University Lecture Series follows that of the DAC’s when a member brought similar concerns to the University Lecture Series and was met with opposition according to the group. The DAC’s statement reads, “Almost all of the [Lecture Series] committee members defended their wish to hire Harmon.” The goal of the Lecture Series as stated on the university website claims to “strives to bring in speakers covering a broad spectrum of contemporary issues for the Miami University, Oxford, and Southern Ohio communities.”
The “Love and Honor Protest for Student Voices” was announced on April 5. The lecture was canceled four days later, yet the protest was held anyway. According to DAC’s statement, this was to protest “complacency” as well as to “uplift survivors.” Two dozen protesters met at the seal to make signs and march to Roudebush Hall.
Zoe Douglas, the President of Miami’s DAC, declined to comment for The Miami Patriot, claiming her political opinions do not align with the paper’s values. However, other protesters did comment on why they attended. Josie Wenzell explained her support for the protest, saying, “I think that having someone who has hurt somebody and giving them a voice is overpowering the victim which is why my sign reads ‘We hear you Megan’ because it’s very important that the victim feels heard.”
While the protest allowed for some students on campus to voice their opinion, the scheduled event that inspired the protest never took place. The cancellation of Harmon’s event may have also resulted in a loss of opportunity for students of the Miami community who were interested to learn first hand from a professional in the field of comedy.
