University of Rhode Island Student Senate Defies First Amendment

FIRE is reporting that a committee of the University of Rhode Island (URI) Student Senate voted on Monday to derecognise the College Republicans student group.

It would seem that the College Republicans hosted a $100 "white, heterosexual American males scholarship" to protest against race-based scholarships back in November 2006. In a meeting on February 19, the Student Senate's Student Organisations Advisory and Review Committee (SOARC) prohibited the group from disbursing the money. It also demanded a public apology because the "satirical" scholarship violated URI's anti-discrimination bylaws.

The College Republicans appealed the decision, but the full Senate denied that appeal.

On March 27, the Student Senate, in a memo to the group, ruled again that they must publish an apology and stated that they 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.

College Republicans agreed to publish an explanation of its intentions but refused to publicly apologise. FIRE asked URI President Robert Carothers to intervene.

In a letter dated April 6, President Carothers instructed the Student Senate to drop its unconstitutional demand for an apology because of the First Amendment.

The SOARC committee ignored him and voted on April 16 to derecognise the College Republicans. The decision by the committee must be confirmed by the whole Student Senate on Wednesday, April 25.

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FIRE quotes:

To URI President Robert Carothers
“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.”

“[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.”

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It would seem that University President Carothers agrees with FIRE's argument. He told the Student Senate that its demand for an apology "does not meet consitutional standards as laid forth in the First Amendment," and directed that "you may not impose any sanctions on the College Republicans, or any other student group, that requires them to make public statements which are not their own."

Will the URI Student Senate subvert free speech?

Update 4/24/07

Rhode Island ACLU defends College Republicans in a letter to the URI Student Senate

URI Student Senate responds back to FIRE

Rhode Island ACLU cites previous examples of other groups staging "discriminatory" events without consequence. Wisconisn chapter of NOW held a "Pay Equity Bake Sale." The Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance at SFSU also held a similar bake sale. Neither suffered any retailiation. The College Republicans at Roger Williams University at Roger Williams University held an affirmative action bake sale and protests occurred, and the student senate there was being asked to curtail their activities.

Somehow I think the punishment does not fit the crime. I would believe that there are certain individuals in the URI Student Senate bent on political correctness and are loving it. I think they would not mind kicking the College Republicans out, not b/c of the whites-only scholarship, they just want to get rid of any "conservative" groups invading their liberal minds.