College Prez Allows 2nd 'Affirmative Action Bake Sale' -- but Not Happily
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
February 10, 2004
(AgapePress) - At one Virginia college, satirical protests against affirmative action have angered administrators and prompted some students to question the school's commitment to free speech.A conservative student group at the College of William and Mary recently held its second "Affirmative Action Bake Sale," in which black and Hispanic students are charged less than white and Asian students for the same items. Last semester, the school stopped a similar protest by the group Sons of Liberty. This time, however, the event was not censored -- but W&M president Timothy Sullivan condemned the bake sale as "inexcusably hurtful" and "abusive."
In a statement regarding this latest controversy, Sullivan said: "What I find personally offensive is the manner in which they [the Sons of Liberty] have chosen to express their views. The 'bake sale' with racially differentiated prices ... is inexcusably hurtful to members of this community whose presence here is welcome and critically important to the quality of our life together. Those who have chosen this abusive method of self-expression will have not a few occasions in later life to look back with regret on what they have done." (See Related Article)
Sons of Liberty president Will Coggin says Sullivan's comments are mostly rhetorical. "He's implying that we're trying to hurt people at the sale, which is by no means the case," Coggin explains. "All we're doing is trying to make a point on a policy that we don't like, and he's trying to spin that and tell students that we're trying to personally attack them. That's just wrong."
The Sons of Liberty spokesman says he has a simple message for the president of the second oldest college in the nation. "As Americans, we're entitled to different points of view than you -- and even if you disagree with us, we still have a right to say it," Coggins says, adding that that is basically what the First Amendment is about, and Sullivan "needs to understand that."
Coggin believes if Sullivan truly valued free speech on campus, he would not continue to justify censoring last year's bake sale. At that event, school officials ordered Coggin's group to remove a sign listing prices based on different skin colors.
