Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, founder and editor in chief of news site The Daily Wire, will visit Northwestern on May 24 for an event hosted by College Republicans.

According to a College Republicans Facebook event, Shapiro, former editor of Breitbart.com, will discuss why “the left hates the Constitution.” The event is open to the public with free admission and will be held at the McCormick Auditorium.

Weinberg sophomore Sammy Cuautle, College Republicans secretary of public relations, said the group decided to bring Shapiro to campus partly because of his opposition to President Donald Trump during last year’s election. Cuautle said Shapiro was criticized by other conservative commentators for his views.

In 2016, Shapiro was banned from speaking at a similar event held at DePaul University. According to the university’s student newspaper, the DePaulia, campus security prevented Shapiro from appearing in a conversation with conservative author Christina Hoff Sommers titled “Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces and Attacks on Free Speech.”

According to the newspaper, DePaul banned Shapiro from speaking on their campus because “they believed they didn’t have the proper means of security to host Shapiro based on what happened after he spoke at other college campuses across the country.”

Cuautle, however, said he doesn’t think this will be a problem at NU. He said College Republicans requested permission from both their faculty adviser and the University to bring Shapiro to campus, and they were approved.

“(DePaul) thought he was too controversial and that’s sort of become a very hot topic around college campuses, the idea of free speech and bringing conservative speakers and whether or not they should be allowed to speak or not,” Cuautle said. “We think he has a very compelling story, he’s a really classical conservative … he got a lot of hate from Trump supporters.”

College Republicans, Cuautle said, isn’t expecting heavy protests for the event.

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