Posted on 04/18/2007 7:22:04 AM PDT by Tank-FL
PROVIDENCE, R.I., April 18, 2007—Displaying a dramatic disregard for students’ constitutional rights, a committee of the University of Rhode Island (URI) Student Senate voted on Monday to derecognize the College Republicans student group. For months, the Student Senate has demanded that the group publicly apologize for advertising a satirical $100 “scholarship” for white, heterosexual, American males. The College Republicans refused to apologize and contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help. FIRE is now calling upon URI President Robert Carothers, who has already informed the Senate that it could not compel student speech, to reverse the decision to derecognize the group.
“Neither the Student Senate nor anyone else at URI has the power to force the College Republicans to say things against their will,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “As bad as it may be to tell people what they cannot say, it is still worse to tell them what they must say. The Supreme Court has long recognized that compelled speech is not compatible with free societies. It is stunning that URI’s student government would show such contempt for fundamental rights, especially after URI’s own president explained it to them.”
The College Republicans student organization first advertised the satirical “White, Heterosexual, American Male” “scholarship” in November, 2006. The scholarship consisted of a nominal $100 to be awarded to someone fitting those criteria who submitted an application and an essay on the adversities he has faced. College Republicans President Ryan Bilodeau explained that the point was to use satire to protest scholarships awarded on the basis of race, gender, or nationality. Over 40 URI students applied for the “scholarship,” many submitting equally satirical application essays.
In a meeting on February 19, the Student Senate’s Student Organizations Advisory and Review Committee (SOARC) prohibited the College Republicans from disbursing the money. The group agreed that it would not give out the $100, but SOARC decided that even advertising the satirical “scholarship” violated URI’s anti-discrimination bylaws and demanded that the group publish an apology in the campus newspaper. Unwilling to apologize, Bilodeau appealed SOARC’s decision. The Senate denied that appeal.
FIRE wrote to Senate President Neil Cavanaugh on March 13, stating that because the Student Senate derives its authority from a public university, it must comply with the First Amendment prohibition on compelled speech. The Student Senate, however, in a memo to the College Republicans on March 27, ruled again that the College Republicans must publish an apology and claimed authority to force them to do so. That sanction was later reduced to an “explanation” to be published in the campus newspaper and a mandatory apology to be sent to all of the students who applied for the scholarship.
The College Republicans agreed to publish an explanation of its intentions, but refused to write any apologies. FIRE wrote to URI President Robert Carothers the following day to urge him to intervene in the situation. FIRE wrote, “URI administrators have a legal duty to step in where the Student Senate has failed and to check its attempt to trample upon students’ most basic freedom of conscience.” And in a letter dated April 6, President Carothers did indeed instruct the Senate in no uncertain terms to drop its unconstitutional demand for an apology. Carothers wrote that the mandatory apology “does not meet constitutional standards as laid forth in the First Amendment and in subsequent court decisions interpreting the standard.”
But at a meeting on Monday night, SOARC nonetheless unanimously voted to ignore both its constitutional obligations and Carothers’ directive and derecognize the College Republicans for refusing to issue an apology. SOARC’s decision will be voted on by the entire Student Senate on Wednesday, April 25.
FIRE wrote another letter to Carothers yesterday calling upon him to immediately reverse SOARC’s decision to derecognize the group. FIRE wrote that “[b]y fulfilling this responsibility as a public official, you can teach the Senate leadership that they must respect the rights of URI students and help to instill in them an understanding of the full repercussions for repeatedly and recklessly defying the Constitution.”
“URI’s student government thinks it is above the law—that it can take fees extracted from students by a state university and yet ignore the constitutional obligations that come with them. It is sadly mistaken,” Lukianoff said. “President Carothers must act now to stop this rogue organization from conducting these unlawful acts under the aegis of the university.”
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty universities across America can be viewed at www.thefire.org.
“University of Rhode Island (URI) Student Senate”
AKA
The communist party.
Pretty fun. The scholarship. Maybe FR should fund a few of them too.
“They will stifle dissent in the name of Free Speech.”..............
There is a bad odor sweeping the country.
bump for later
Wow, this is just mindboggling. It amazes me that the liberal mindset is that the constitution only applies to them, and the rest of the of the country can just go *&$@ off.
Sounds like the Pubbies could initiate a Lawsuit, take down the University, get reinstated, and increase the funding of the scholarship. Its a liberal tactic. Time to use it against them.
April 17, 2007
President Robert L. Carothers
Green Hall
35 Campus Avenue
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, Rhode Island 02881-1303
URGENT
Sent via U.S. Mail and Facsimile (401-874-7149)
Dear President Carothers:
We write for a second time with great disappointment and deepened resolve regarding the actions taken by the Student Organizations Advisory and Review Committee (SOARC) of the Student Senate against the College Republicans student organization. FIRE appreciates your April 6 memo directing the Senate to abandon its demand that the College Republicans publicly apologize for advertising the satirical WHAM scholarship.
However, as you may now know, last night SOARC chose to defy both your directive and the constitutional prohibition on compelling speech by unanimously voting to derecognize the College Republicans.
FIRE is most disappointed by this decision. A governing body at a public institution cannot and must not so blatantly flout the constitutional rights of the students over whom it presides. Furthermore, a president of a public institution cannot and must not allow these actions to stand. FIRE calls upon you to immediately reverse the decision to derecognize the College Republicans. By fulfilling this responsibility as a public official, you can teach the Senate leadership that they must respect the rights of URI students and help to instill in them an understanding of the full repercussions for repeatedly and recklessly defying the Constitution.
As always, FIRE is prepared to use the full extent of its resources to see this matter through to a just and moral conclusion.
Sincerely,
Greg Lukianoff
President
The university should at the least make everyone on the student senate that voted for this to step down. They have proven that they are not responsible enough to hold those seats.
You nailed it. Stalinists of the future coming to a Democratic Party near you.
One more demonstration of how college campuses are the most intolerant institutions in the country when it comes to free speech and free thinking. These bastards deserve to be under a tyrant’s thumb larger than their own.
Now is the time for good Republican alumni to let the Administration know the funds stop NOW.
Always interesting to see how academic “free speech” holds up when dollars are involved..................
That scholarship also has a “Meal Plan” benefit component. Once a week you are mailed a white bread and mayo sandwich.
... and be replaced by students designated by the College Republicans.
It's what the poverty pimps and race hustlers would do in the same position, isn't it?
Liberals = Fascists
There is a bad ‘STALINIST’ odor sweeping the country, to be sure. FIRE is great, good for them for supporting these students. And good for the College Republicans President for refusing to apologize. This is something I would have liked to see in ‘adult’ Republicans who have been attacked recently — refusing to apologize. As if apologizing is one of the Ten Commandments or something.
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