IRVINE – The College Republicans at UCI was banned from meeting on much of the campus – hours after university administrators learned that the Republican youth plan to bring back a controversial speaker to campus before the November election.

College Republicans, along with some Orange County GOP leaders, said on Wednesday that the administration is punishing students and violating their free speech rights over what they said is a technicality. Many have already began ringing the university with their concerns.

“We hope that the university will change course and serve as a beacon for the free exchange of ideas,” said Julian Babbitt, executive director of the Orange County Republican Party.

While the university does not call it a suspension, the sanction has that same impact and renders the club inactive, said the students and their supporters.

“The university should be a place for free expression and free assembly,” said Robert Petrosyan, UCI College Republicans chairman emeritus. “This kind of decision sets a horrible precedent, not just for our club, but for student organizations all over the country that are being threatened by draconian administrative policies that restrict our First Amendment rights.”

UC Irvine officials say the club violated university policy because it did not provide proof of insurance for private security guards hired by members of the Lincoln Club for a June 2 talk featuring conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos.

In an e-mail to Petrosyan late Monday afternoon, an official with the Student Center & Event Services wrote that failure to comply “results in immediate suspension of the group,” which would then “not be able to book meetings or events” with the center until next spring.

Most campus spots must be booked through the Student Center.

“It’s a suspension by another name,” Petrosyan said.

UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said the club is not suspended and the email to Petrosyan was “poorly worded.” The student club could still book some spaces on campus but not through the student center, she said. The university “unequivocally” is not attempting to ban the Republican group from hosting a speaker, Lawhon said.

“We are a place for free expression and free assembly. But you also have to be adult enough to read contracts and follow the rules,” she said.

Ariana Rowlands, the club’s president, noted that the email arrived four hours after she met with two UCI administrators who asked for a debriefing on the Yiannopoulos event. During the Monday meeting, Rowlands told them she planned to bring back the provocative Yiannopoulos, a gay man who spices his conservative points with un-PC talk and humor.

The timing between Rowlands’ meeting with university administrators and the letter detailing the sanction was a coincidence, Lawhon said.

Rowlands and Petrosyan saw the university email while attending an Orange County Republican Central Committee meeting Monday. When they reported to the group, the county’s GOP brass was not pleased.

“There was complete shock and disgust in the room,” said Seth Morrison, managing director of Orange County’s conservative Lincoln Club. “The bigger issue is the ability for conservative students to have the same access to student facilities and institutional support that other groups get.”

Yiannopoulos’ arrival earlier this month was controversial from the get-go. One administrator urged “safe-zone” training and two groups organized a counter-event to Yiannopoulos’ “Social Justice is Cancer” talk.

While some 200 students heard Yiannopoulos, the tech editor for the conservative-leaning Breitbart.com, another 300 who couldn’t get in faced off against some 50 to 60 protesters. UCI’s Republican Club passed out pacifiers. About 80 officers were on hand from five different law enforcement agencies; police reported no incidents.

In the 24 hours since news of the sanction hit social media, UCI’s College Republicans have garnered support from their state and national counterparts, with one group in New York quickly gathering more than 1,000 signatures on a petition asking UCI to “reinstate” the college club.

The UCI Anteaters for Bernie Sanders also posted their support on Facebook: “While we disagree with the College Republicans on a range of issues, (we) hereby firmly stand against this decision, and are vehemently against the administration for their over-reaching bureaucracy.”

Assemblyman Matthew Harper, R-Huntington Beach, also has reached out to UCI administrators and plans to meet with the students. He noted one of the club’s primary roles is to support Republican candidates and help register voters.

“This sanction,” Harper said, “effectively destroys the point of the organization.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@ocregister.com