Letter: Student Senate can't force apology from College Republicans
Posted: 4/25/07
04/25/07 - To the Cigar,
I write to you regarding a certain discriminatory scholarship that has gained a fair amount of fame recently: that of the White Heterosexual American Male scholarship put forth by the URI College Republicans.
I think the majority of Cigar readers will already know what the fuss is all about: the College Republicans advertised and implemented a scholarship designed to illuminate the public to the absurdity of affirmative action; people got upset, as people often are upset by the truth.
In the end, a branch of the student government attempted (and is attempting as we speak) to force the College Republicans to utter words that were not their own, and the latter organization, which has committed no legal or constitutional wrong, now faces the ominous threat of nullification.
To be more specific, the URI Student Senate ordered that the College Republicans send a letter to this esteemed publication, apologizing to those students who applied for the scholarship. So, the question is whether or not the senate has the authority to compel any individual to do or say anything. And the answer, of course, is no, it absolutely has not.
"Freedom of speech," as known to Americans, means not only being able to say what you want when you want, but also having the liberty to remain silent when you want. "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech," it says.
The College Republicans do not wish to make any sort of apology, and see no need to, so they will hold their peace, as is their constitutional right. Now, by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, people and organizations are generally allowed to function as they please; therefore, it stands to reason that the government at a private school somewhere would have the authority to remove whomever it pleased from the premises whenever it liked and for whatever reason, unjust as it may sound.
The University of Rhode Island, however, as you all know, is not a private school, it is funded by the state. A branch of government at a state institution, bound by state and federal constitutions (not to mention whatever student documents exist on campus), has no right to chastise any organization that operates within the law on public land.
As stated above, the URI College Republicans have committed no crime, and it is unconstitutional for the senate to try to force them to apologize, particularly when those who would receive the apology neither want it nor need it.
President L. Carothers has added his voice to ours, instructing the senate to lift the sanctions it has placed on us. By ignoring his directive, they have spurned the highest power in the university, and proven that they do not wish to achieve the "marketplace of ideas" that they call the University of Rhode Island, but only to remove all ideas that are contrary to their own.
This constitutional negligence will not go unnoticed. However, the College Republicans are in the process of contacting countless media outlets, including the Cigar, local radio stations and FOX News. If the weight of the entire nation bearing down upon them cannot change the minds of the senate, then no student organization is safe.
Joe Livolsi
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