DePaul University preaches diversity--except for conservative opinion

Marathon Pundit ^ | April 2, 2006 | Marathon Pundit

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

Well, Fr. Dennis Holtschneider, DePaul University's president, is making snide comments about conservatives again.

Last month some creep used a permanent marker to write racist graffiti inside a DePaul dorm on the school's Lincoln Park campus.

Although the DePaul public relations department denies it, in the far-left group-think at DePaul, the vile incident seems inexorably tied to the mock affirmative action bake sale held by the DePaul Conservative Alliance in January.

From UPI on March 9:

DePaul University spokesperson Denise Mattson told WBBM Radio the incident was an assault on the university's values.

Mattson said the campus has been politically charged since late January when a new campus organization, the DePaul Conservative Alliance, conducted an "affirmative action bake sale" at which blacks were charged less than whites.

"That certainly created some dialogue about affirmative action policies and practices about minorities on campus," Mattson said.

A university spokesman said the alliance was not suspected in the graffiti incident.

From the latest edition of the DePaulia, the school newspaper of the university:

"First of all, let me say I am proud to be your President," said Holtschneider, at the information session held after the prayer vigil the day after the crime. "I sent out one e-mail, and we filled the lower SAC (my note: the Student Activities Center) [with] hundreds of people. It looked like DePaul." Holtschneider opened the floor up to students' questions and concerns, some relating to the affirmative action bake sale that had occurred several weeks before the graffiti incident.

"At this point, the two events are not related, but both events harmed us as a community," said Holtschneider. (Emphasis mine)

Father Holtschneider: Affirmative action, which came into play after the 1964 Civil Rights Bill became law, was never meant to be permanent. So there is nothing wrong in questioning a policy that many Americans--perhaps most--feel deserves at least a second look.

Oh, the article goes on and on about diversity. But I guess conservatives don't figure into the DePaul diversity stew.

Dr. Steven Plaut, our man in the Holy Land, found this DePaulia op-ed from student Ali Abbas about Catholic DePaul recently adding a queer studies minor. Ali seems okay with the minor. But I want to highlight this passage from his op-ed:

The Chicago Tribune claims that Reverend James Halstead of DePaul’s religious studies department expressed that he had no academic qualms with the program but was concerned with "how it would affect DePaul’s image."

What's left of DePaul's reputation is in tatters.