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SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island’s College Republicans today are pushing for reversal of a recommendation to “derecognize” them as a campus group for allegedly violating an anti-discrimination rule.
The school’s College Republicans refused to apologize for offering a $100 scholarship for “white, heterosexual American males,” first advertised last November.
Ryan Bilodeau, president of the university’s College Republicans, said in the news release posted today on the group's Web site 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.”
The news release states the scholarship was satirical and would go to someone who submitted essays and application “on the adversities he has faced.”
It was not meant to discriminate, the College Republicans say.
The news release states the College Republicans got in touch with Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, known as FIRE, which is quoted expressing criticism.
“Neither the Student Senate nor anyone else at URI has the power to force the College Republicans to say things against their will,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff says in the statement.
“As bad as it may be to tell people what they cannot say, it is still worse to tell them what they must say. The Supreme Court has long recognized that compelled speech is not compatible with free societies. It is stunning that URI’s student government would show such contempt for fundamental rights, especially after URI’s own president explained it to them.”
The release describes a vote taken by the Student Senate on Monday to "derecognize" the College Republicans as a campus group.
However, Neil Leston, the Student Senate president, said today there has been no decision on this matter but, rather, it was a recommendation Monday by the Senate's Student Organizations Advisory and Review Committee.
The Senate is slated to consider the matter next Wednesday.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney
Leston, who was recently elected Senate president, said he has spoken to various parties about the matter, including the College Republicans' president, to get all points of view.
"We definitely have an open mind and no one is out to get anyone in this ... We are trying to come up with a sanction that is most appropriate," said Leston.
By losing certification as a student group, an organization can’t use university money or other resources, the College Republicans say.
Leston said his understanding is that different groups fall into different tiers of money they are entitled to as a campus group. He said it typically also entitles a group to use of some space on the campus.
In a Feb. 19 meeting, according to the College Republicans, the Student Senate’s Student Organizations Advisory and Review Committee banned them from giving out the scholarship money.
The College GOP agreed not to award the $100, but the Student Senate committee decided that advertising the “scholarship” ran afoul of unviversity anti-discrimination bylaws and demanded the group publish an apology in the campus newspaper.
Bilodeau appealed the committee's decision, but the Senate denied the appeal.
FIRE wrote to Neil Cavanaugh, the Student Senate president, on March 13, asserting that since the Student Senate gets its authority from a public university, it must follow the First Amendment prohibition on compelled speech.
But the Senate's March 27 memo to the College Republicans stated they must publish an apology and asserted it has the power to compel them to, according to the College Republicans' release.
Later, it was changed to an "explanation" that would be put in the campus newspaper and a mandatory apology to be sent to all students who applied for the scholarship.
The College Republicans decided to publish an explanation of its intentions but not write an apology.
