E-mail
Print
Campus promotion bias
Punishments need to be dealt 50/50
By Kyle Duerstein
The College Republicans assert, though, that when their Democrat counterparts are tabling, said Democrats hang signs behind their table to promtoe Barack Obama and Joe Biden. No one stops them, so why stop the Republicans?
You may have noticed the John McCain banner hanging from one of the offices on the third floor of the Union as you walk through Spaights Plaza. Well, Union officials noticed it too, after it had been hanging for several weeks.
On Tuesday Assistant Director of Union Operations Tom Viel sent an e-mail to the officers of the College Republicans, the group who resided in that office and who hung the McCain sign, and ordered that the banner be removed within 24 hours. Viel cited the Union’s student organization office space lease, which reads, “The only acceptable postings on exterior windows shall be the names and logos of the organizations in question.”
The College Republicans replied to Viel, refusing to remove the banner. They contended that, technically, the banner isn’t on the window; rather, it’s suspended in front of the window. (Technicalities make the world go ‘round.) And besides, they say, Union officials haven’t been enforcing policies equally towards political groups anyway.
In the e-mail, the College Republicans also asserted that while tabling in the Union last week, they hung signs promoting John McCain behind their table and were ordered by Union staff to take them down. The Union says that when you rent a table, you literally only rent the table and its chairs. Again, technically, this is correct.
The College Republicans assert, though, that when their Democrat counterparts are tabling, said Democrats hang signs behind their table to promote Barack Obama and Joe Biden. No one stops them, so why stop the Republicans? Political bias?
The College Republicans do have a point, and it’s beyond the high school “but they did it” excuse. Just recall the history surrounding the College Republicans and other conservatively oriented groups on campus. The University ordered that a conservative banner be taken down from the Union Concourse, attempts to impose staggering and unnecessary security costs because of the conservative speakers they bring to campus, and other less than intelligent, seemingly politically based attacks levied against them. The College Republicans have justification to feel a little targeted, whether it’s based on ideology or not.
Rules are rules, though, right? Well, sure, but some rules are stupid.
What if the College Republicans officially named their McCain banner as their temporary logo? Technically, the Union couldn’t order them to take their logo down. A student organization shouldn’t feel that is necessary.
If Voices for Planned Parenthood adopted a picture of an aborted fetus as their logo, and stuck it in their window overlooking Spaights Plaza, no one would want to see that day in and day out, but it would be their logo, and so it would be allowed.
The College Republicans just want to hang a McCain sign because he’s the Republican candidate for President. This rule, probably intended to keep inappropriate and/or distasteful things from being hung in those windows, is instead preventing a political student organization from being political. Oh yeah, it’s free speech too.
Students might not be wild and crazy about John McCain, but at least a political banner might encourage political involvement, whether you’re Democrat, Republican or independent. God forbid you hang a McCain sign, though.
And then, as if that wasn’t enough, seemingly in response to a press release about the above incident, UWM officials on Thursday pulled security for Robert Spencer, a controversial conservative speaker the College Republicans will bring to campus in two weeks. Without security, the University will not allow the event to happen.
We need to stop being oversensitive, especially politically. If student organizations want to hang signs in their windows that promote their upcoming events, or their mission, then we should be able to let them do just that. If University administrators can’t handle the pressure that results from a press release about a stupid move they’ve made, maybe they should go over to Hartford Avenue School and sit in on a second-grade class lesson on growing up. Vice Chancellor Mamarchev, Associate Vice Chancellor Williams, Union Director Gore, I’m sure they’d love to have you.
Kyle Duerstein is a Student Association Senator and currently serves as Office Allocation Director for the Union Policy Board
For more insight, including the opinions of UWM Republican Chairman Tyler Kristopeit, please visit our online editorial section at www.uwmpost.com.
> Comments
Esteemed UWM Alum on Oct 07, 2008 at 07:57 AM:
Kyle, Thanks for pointing this out. This sounds a lot like what they tried doing with Walid Shoebat when he was brought in by the Conservative Union last year. We all know, of course, that freedom of speech prevailed and the UWM administration scored about as many points with the press as their cumulative IQ.
Good work UWM CR's, and Go Mccain/Palin!
Geoff Loper on Oct 09, 2008 at 03:39 PM:
Just another great example of how this university, like so many others, are SO liberally biased that they will go to such measures over a flag... Great article Kyle!