But the Orem campus managed to score a major coup by attracting a speaker who wraps all of those accomplishments into a single person, and the reaction from many people ranges from stunned silence to anger.
Michael Moore has that effect on people.
As the man behind, and in front of, the highest-grossing documentary film of all time - the anti-war, anti-President Bush "Fahrenheit 9/11" - Moore is not the sort of person who elicits yawns. Which is too bad for anyone who thinks that snoozing through lectures that are forgotten before lunch, much less before the final exam, is what a college education is all about.
The fact that UVSC has, just by announcing Moore's Oct. 20 appearance, stimulated a fair amount of heart-felt discussion about politics, the intersection of journalism and entertainment and the limits of academic freedom and debate demonstrates that Moore has earned his hefty speaking fee before he has even set foot in Utah County.
That said, it would be nice if Moore's remarks would run more to the theory and practice of advocacy filmmaking, something people of all persuasions can learn from, and less to his declared desire to oust the president from office in November.
Some residents of the college's happily conservative neighborhood have been heard to complain that someone who has made a name, and a significant amount of money, bashing corporate power (“Roger and Me”), America's gun-crazed culture (Oscar-winner “Bowling for Columbine”) and the sitting president of the United States is not a properly respectable role model to be given a public forum at the local outpost of the state's system of higher education.
But as H.L. Mencken, the leading multi-media attack dog of a previous generation, properly noted, the desire to be respectable has ruined more journalists than drink. Another criticism of Moore, that he lacks a college education, is basically a cheap shot, given that he has accomplished things that few college graduates can aspire to.
Among the concerns raised by those displeased by Moore's visit to UVSC is that they certainly expect to see the college provide some balance by presenting a good Republican speaker. But, in a solidly Republican region where right-wing radio talker Sean Hannity is an annual July 4th family tradition, that demand rings somewhat hollow.
