Updated 1:32: Auburn University spokesman Mike Clardy told AL.com Wednesday afternoon via email that Richard Spencer "was not invited or sponsored by any campus group. He is paying to use the space."

Cole Davis, president of the Auburn College Republicans student group - which hosted alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in October - confirmed to AL.com Wednesday afternoon that the organization did not invite Spencer to visit the university.

"I absolutely support the right of anyone to come and speak and engage in debate about politics, government and whatever else," Davis said via phone. "I don't know if I'm going to go or not, but if so, I'll go and see what he has to say, and if I or anyone else disagrees with what he says then we should engage in debate about that."

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Richard Spencer, the divisive "alt-right" leader and white supremacist who has risen to national prominence over the past year, plans to speak at Auburn University next week.

Spencer - who is widely derided as a "Neo-Nazi" and is perhaps best-known for an incident earlier this year in which he was punched in the face by a protester during inaugural festivities in Washington, D.C. in January - announced the planned speech in a video statement that he tweeted out Wednesday morning.

Auburn issued a statement Wednesday afternoon in response to the announcement.

"We strongly deplore his views, which run counter to those of this institution. While his event isn't affiliated with the university, Auburn supports the constitutional right to free speech," the statement said.

"We encourage the campus community to respond to speech they find objectionable with their own views in civil discourse and to do so with respect and inclusion."

The free event is scheduled to take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Auburn's James E. Foy Hall, according to Spencer, who said it will be open to the public.

"I will be talking about Trump and the Syria situation, I'll be talking about the alt-right, I'll be talking about identity, and I'll certainly be taking questions from the audience," he said in the video statement. "If this event is anything like my other ones, it is going to be wild. So I hope I see you there."

Spencer did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon to a tweet inquiring how he came to be scheduled to speak at Auburn and who will be providing security for the event.

Spencer's appearances are known for generating controversy and protests, but Clardy told AL.com via email that "[a]t this point I am not aware of any planned protests."

Auburn is already in the news for issues related to race, as news broke earlier this week that an alt-right group calling itself the "White Student Union" has distributed anti-Semitic fliers on campus in recent days, according to The Plainsman, the university's student newspaper.

The group was initially called the "Whites of the Alt-Right Educating Auburn Gentiles for Liberation and Empowerment" - or WAR EAGLE, a reference to the school's popular rallying cry - but they changed the name to White Student Union after an outcry against the direct affiliation of the group with the school.

Auburn University told The Plainsman in a statement that the group "isn't an Auburn student organization, and we find the views expressed in their materials reprehensible and unrepresentative of those of the university."

The announcement of the Tuesday speech is not the first time Spencer and Auburn have been mentioned in the same sentence.

In January 2011, the firebrand co-wrote an article called "Auburn and the Opiate of America" for the website Radix Journal. The piece attempts to make a series of racially driven claims about the school's football team and academic program.

Spencer is an avowed white nationalist who has called for "peaceful ethnic cleansing" in the past.

"America was until this past generation a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity," Spencer said at a widely distributed speech last year in Washington, D.C, during which he expressed pleasure with the rise of President Donald Trump. "It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us."