Posted on 04/09/2008 4:59:47 PM PDT by Seven Minute Maniac
Catholic university to black, pro-life speaker: You’re not Welcomed! …but we’ll make room for Al Franken and transgender speaker.
Liberal administrators at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic university and private college in Minnesota, censored the appearance of prominent pro-life and black speaker Star Parker. On April 21, 2008, Star—the best-selling author of numerous books—was slated to speak on campus about the devastating impact abortion has on minority communities. UST Vice President of Student Affairs Jane Canney nixed the idea entirely, citing “concerns” that the lecture was being underwritten by Young America’s Foundation.
Katie Kieffer, a 2005 alumna of St. Thomas and founder of the independent conservative newspaper on campus, the St. Thomas Standard, as well as the non-profit Conservative Student News Inc., was an organizer of the Star Parker lecture. She confronted Canney on her refusal to allow Star on campus. “Our Catholic university has hosted two decidedly liberal speakers in the past year, Al Franken and Debra Davis, an outspoken transgender woman,” Kieffer wrote in the St. Thomas Standard.
Why, then, won’t St. Thomas welcome Star Parker—a pro-life, Christian speaker?
Jane Canney told Katie and her sister, Amie Kieffer, a senior at St. Thomas and editor of the St. Thomas Standard, “As long as I am a vice president at St. Thomas, the Young America’s Foundation will not be allowed on campus.” Canney didn’t return the Foundation’s phone calls seeking comment. The Student Life Committee, on which Jane Canney resides, denied the Students for Human Life and the St. Thomas Standard a room on campus for Star Parker’s lecture. The young conservatives only needed a room and advertising space to host Parker, as Young America’s Foundation and Conservative Student News Inc. were covering all other costs.
Canney’s hostility toward Young America’s Foundation originated when the Foundation sponsored Ann Coulter at St. Thomas two years ago—an event attracting more than 750 students. Canney claimed she felt “uncomfortable” and “disturbed” while listening to Coulter, adding that she will never allow another Foundation-sponsored speaker on campus again.
Campus liberals are unaccustomed to hearing conservative ideas in their echo chambers, so it’s not uncommon for them to become discomforted when hearing alternative opinions.
“Canney should not deprive students the right to hear Star Parker’s ideas,” said Jason Mattera, the spokesman for Young America’s Foundation. “Such guilt-by-association is unbecoming of a college administrator.”
“Just because some students and some administrators claimed to have been offended by what one conservative speaker says doesn’t mean you cut off the entire campus population from hearing conservatives viewpoints,” Mattera continued.
“It’s startling that a school named after one of the greatest thinkers in civilization is displaying such anti-intellectualism. Let’s treat college students like the adults they are—allow them to hear a variety of speakers and form their own conclusions.”
Young America’s Foundation sponsors more than 500 lectures annually featuring a wide array of the very best in the Conservative Movement, including John Ashcroft, Michelle Malkin, Dinesh D’Souza, Sean Hannity, Bay Buchanan, Ann Coulter, and many others.
Liberals speakers at St. Thomas receive full support from the school’s administration. Just this past year Canney’s Student Life Committee approved the appearances of Al Franken, the bombastic liberal commentator, and Debra Davis, a transgendered activist.
Katie Kieffer called Canney out on her duplicity: “As an alumna of St. Thomas, I am embarrassed that the vice president of Student Affairs, Jane Canney, makes key decisions based on impulse and feelings. I am embarrassed that a vice president at this Catholic institution is making it virtually impossible for conservatives to bring conservative speakers to campus. For a person in charge of Campus Life on a Catholic campus, she is closed to our efforts to present conservative and Catholic pro-life values.”
Jane Canney is violating the school’s speaker policy to boot. The policy states that decisions to invite speakers are governed by “fairness and equity toward various conflicting views and interests, being mindful of the needs for wider information on the part of students and the larger community…Another factor governing speakers on campus is our concern that a wide variety of issues and viewpoints be given expression.”
She’s also violating her school’s expressed convictions, including “intellectual inquiry,” “faith and reason,” “the pursuit of truth,” “diversity,” and “meaningful dialogue.”
“Star Parker is enthusiastic about educating young people about abortion’s demoralizing effects, ideas which are in complete alignment with St. Thomas’ stated positions and Catholic teachings. Based on her behavior, Jane Canney seems unduly hostile toward conservative values,” says Kieffer. “St. Thomas’ commitment to diversity and intellectual inquiry appears to be threadbare at best.”
It’s not the first time St. Thomas featured an unhinged administrator. On April 18, 2005, the university’s president, Father Dennis Dease, accused Ann Coulter of “vulgarizing” his campus even though Father Dease wasn’t present for the lecture and failed to enumerate any of Coulter’s “offensive” remarks. Father Dease’s ire should’ve been directed at the leftist hecklers who interrupted Coulter’s speech by yelling expletives at her. Janney Canney and Father Dease can be contacted at jwcanney@stthomas.edu and djdease@stthomas.edu.
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This is not about Star Parker. This is all about payback for the YAF bringing in Ann Coulter.
Period.
It still sends a bad message.
>>Liberal administrators at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic university and private college in Minnesota<<
Liberal and Catholic in the same sentence is an abomination. Just as patriotic Democrat is.
This school is in desperate need of some real deep house cleaning. When a Catholic University does not espouse Catholic ideals something is very wrong with that picture.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
CINOs?
Ping for later
Big time CINOs.
Dinesh D'Souza??? That wild man? He gets so wrapped up and passionate about what he's saying, he starts foaming at the mouth a bit, spittle flying!
No wait...I was confusing him with Jerry Brown. Never mind...
I wonder if conservative speech will even be allowed anywhere by 2012.
LOL!
Speaking of Star Parker...this was just posted
A.A.C.
[tongue in cheek]
no silly - that would be a violation of the [un]”fairness doctrine”!
A.A.C.
Wow. Sounds like they lost their way.
Mission
Inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition, the University of St. Thomas educates students to be morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely and work skillfully to advance the common good.
Vision
We seek to be a recognized leader in Catholic higher education that excels in effective teaching, active learning, scholarly research and responsible engagement with the local community as well as with the national and global communities in which we live.
Convictions
As a community we are committed to:
Pursuit of truth
We value intellectual inquiry as a life-long habit, the unfettered and impartial pursuit of truth in all its forms, the integration of knowledge across disciplines, and the imaginative and creative exploration of new ideas.
Academic excellence
We create a culture among faculty, students and staff that recognizes the power of ideas and rewards rigorous thinking.
Faith and reason
We actively engage Catholic intellectual tradition, which values the fundamental compatibility of faith and reason and fosters meaningful dialogue directed toward the flourishing of human culture.
BUMP
“Debra Davis, an outspoken transgender woman”
BTW, “Debra” is not a woman, he is a man who wears woman’s clothes, as you might suspect.
Doesn’t surprize me. When my kids were in school, what I thought was a conservative Catholic grade school, I asked the principal if I could drop off flyers for the kids to take home with details about an upcoming conference regarding “Vision 2000”, a version of “Goals 2000” (anyone remember that?) She got back with me and said the arch diocese told her the school couldn’t get involved with anything from that “conservative” group.
Sue the university.
Are these university clowns Jesuits? If so, that explains everything. If not, you Catholics have a bigger problem.
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