The Villanova College Republicans have abandoned their plans to bring Milo Yiannopoulos as a guest speaker to campus after a backlash from students, writes Daniel Craig for PhillyVoice.

Yiannopoulos, one of the leaders of the so-called “alt-right” movement and tech editor for the conservative news site Breitbart, announced on his website that he was scheduled to speak at Villanova on Nov. 15.

However, the event was unsanctioned since the Villanova College Republicans, who organized the event, did not follow the proper procedure for having a speaker on campus. After several students saw the announcement on Yiannopoulos’s page, they expressed outrage over having him there.

Facing this backlash, the College Republicans abandoned their plans to invite Yiannopoulos in order to preserve the good reputation the group has on campus.

“We like free speech, but we’re also a group on campus, and we want to maintain the respect on campus,” said Frank Connor, executive board member of Villanova College Republicans. “If having him means we lose respect on campus, we’re obviously not in favor of that.”

Read more about the cancellation from PhillyVoice by clicking here.