The co-founders of Black Lives Matter will each be paid $10,000 to speak Thursday in a virtual event hosted by UF Student Government’s Accent Speakers Bureau, UF Black Student Union and Pride Student Union, according to the event contracts.
The event was announced June 17 and will be held at 6:30 p.m. via Microsoft Teams, a virtual meeting program that can host up to 10,000 participants at a time.
Last month, John Mulaney was paid $50,000 to speak the first speaker of Accent’s virtual summer series. In the Fall, Accent paid Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle a combined $50,000 to speak at the University Auditorium.
When asked why the BLM speakers were being paid less than recent speakers, Accent Chair Steven Wolf wrote in an email to The Alligator that the speaking fee was determined by the speakers’ agency.
“We rely on the agents and their clients to provide a speaking fee,” Wolf wrote.
Wolf wrote that he can't speak on behalf of the payments made to Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle because he was not involved in the payments for that show. John Mulaney’s agency requested he be paid $50,000 and Accent agreed, he wrote.
The event will start with an introduction from Accent, followed by a 43-minute moderated conversation and a 15-minute student Q&A, according to the contract.
Rebroadcasting, streaming or posting of the event will not be permitted, as per the contract.
All students and faculty with a valid UF email address can register for the event. Registration will close at noon on Thursday.
According to the Facebook event page, more than 1,000 students have shown interest in attending.
Contact Nicole at nrodriguez@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @_nrodriguez99.