Student Senate Stuck on Stupid

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) issued a press release today (HT: Michelle Malkin) detailing the obtuse stubbornness of the Student Senate at the University of Rhode Island.

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.

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.

[I]n 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.

What part of the university president's telling these people their actions are unconstitutional don't they understand? Maybe "does not meet constitutional standards" has too many big words for them to grasp. Maybe if the university president told them simply, "You can't do that," they might get it.

There's a lot the people on this Student Senate committee don't understand. They don't understand satire. They don't understand that discriminating in favor of Whites or Asians is the same as discriminating in favor of Blacks or Hispanics--it's all discrimination. They don't understand that just because they're appalled by the idea of a Whites-only scholarship, that doesn't give them the legal right to derecognize a valid student group.

If this Student Senate committee's members are the best and the brightest that Rhode Island's education system has to offer, then RI parents, it's time to take your kids out of those schools and high-tail it for another state, where they don't teach Stupid as a major subject.