Grand Canyon University is inviting Ben Shapiro to speak on campus this spring after announcing last week that it canceled the conservative commentator's speaking engagement.
The Phoenix-based Christian university said in a long statement that it had been working with the Young America's Foundation national organization, which had arranged to bring Shapiro to the campus.
GCU said the organization announced the speaking engagement the same day it submitted its written request to bring Shapiro to campus even though the university had not yet begun its approval process.
A committee of students, faculty and staff made a recommendation to deny the request, expressing the concern that Shapiro would bring a feeling of divisiveness to the campus based on his previous appearances.
GCU said the recommendation was brought to the university's president, and YAF met with university leadership to review that decision on Monday.
According to the statement, "The process of releasing the information became very contentious as the parties could not agree on the exact language that was going to be used. After nearly 24 hours of not being able to work in a productive fashion with the YAF national organization, the University has decided to take a different path forward."
GCU said it is extending an official invitation directly to Shapiro sometime this spring.
However, the university said it will not work with YAF any longer.
In a statement released Friday defending its decision to cancel the speaking engagement, the university said it believes in a lot of the things Shapiro stands for and speaks about.
"Our decision to cancel Shapiro’s speaking engagement is not a reflection of his ideologies or the values he represents, but rather a desire to focus on opportunities that bring people together," the university said.
GCU's statement was rather long, going into detail about the culture at the Phoenix campus. The university said in order for someone to understand its decision to cancel Shapiro's appearance "one has to first understand the University’s history and the culture that has been created on our campus."
"Today, we live in a very divided America. The current high volume of rhetoric has not led to community-building or problem-solving," the university said. "Grand Canyon University, rather than engage in this type of rhetoric, has instead worked to bring people together and build partnerships to renovate our inner-city community."
Shapiro, who's been met with protesters at places like UC Berkeley and Ohio State University during past college speaking engagements, said his events are "unfailingly polite."
The conservative commentator accused GCU of caving into a "couple motivated professors."
"Apparently even a whiff of controversy was enough for GCU to run screaming for the hills," he said.
Shapiro questioned whether the university would've canceled a speaking engagement by a less controversial speaker from the Left.
In Friday's statement, GCU recognized it would have probably disappointed or offended people in the community regardless of which decision they would've made.
"It was not our intent to disappoint or offend anyone," GCU said. "It was, rather, to use our position as a Christian university to bring unity to a community that sits amidst a country that is extremely divided and can’t seem to find a path forward toward unity."
On Tuesday, the university said "conservative dialogue will continue on campus whether Mr. Shapiro decides to accept our invitation or not."