UW-La Crosse Accused of Discriminating Against Unprotected Campus Groups
by Jim Brown
November 1, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Yet another student group in the University of Wisconsin system says it has been victimized by liberal bias and hypocrisy. And in this case, he charges, the victimizer is a university office that exists to address discrimination on campus.
College Republicans President Mike Tellier filed a complaint with the Campus Climate Office at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse after the group's posters, which advertised a 3,000-flag 9/11 memorial, were defaced. However, he says that office, which is set up to address instances of "hate" on campus, told him it would not investigate the vandalism because the College Republicans were not a protected class.
Protected classes recognized by the Campus Climate Office include homosexuals, blacks, and Hispanics. Tellier feels the university's willingness to address hate against such groups but not against his own organization or other groups not on the "protected" list is unfair. He contends UW-La Crosse has a terrible double standard when it comes to fighting discrimination.
"The issue I want to bring us back to is why do we set up special offices like this to only protect certain people or certain groups," Tellier says. "Why, when you have a hate response team, does it only apply to certain groups -- why not everybody?"
The College Republicans leader sees tremendous irony in the idea that an office that exists to address hate and discrimination is itself showing bias and discriminating against particular groups, such as students with conservative or Christian viewpoints. "You know," he notes, "the people that talk the loudest about diversity and tolerance, I find, are the most intolerant themselves."
Therein lies "the hypocrisy of this stuff," Tellier asserts. "And my point is, why should the government be sponsoring this? I feel that this is government discrimination here," he says. Nor is the situation at UW-La Crosse the only example of it to be found in the UW system, according to a number of complaints.
For instance, one academic freedom advocacy group points out that the University of Wisconsin-Superior is currently being sued for denying official recognition to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Also, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire was recently sued over its ban on resident assistant-led Bible studies -- a ban that was dropped following the lawsuit.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
