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CRISIS AT COLGATE UNIVERSITY
350 Students Protest at Rally; 1,256+ sign petition;
200 March on President’s Office with Demands

(Hamilton, NY) April 12 – Approximately 350 students at Colgate University gathered today to protest the University’s “New Vision” - a coercive land grab scheme that requires the sale of all Greek organization houses under the threat of de-recognition of the chapters.
 
The rally was organized by F.A.C.T. – Freedom of Association Coalition for Truth, a non-partisan, student-led organization.
 
New school policies also prohibit students – under the threat of suspension or expulsion - from participating in any organization that has not been approved by the University. Another policy forbids more than eight students to live together without University approval.
 
“We’re demanding that President Rebecca Chopp and her administration respect our First Amendment rights of free association and the private property rights of the Greek organizations,” said Sean Devlin, a senior at Colgate and one of F.A.C.T.’s founding members. Devlin is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, whose alumni association has a lawsuit against the University. “If the New Vision plan is implemented, Colgate University will be the most restrictive college in America.”
 
The audience broke into frequent applause at the comments of nationally recognized experts who spoke on civil rights, free speech on campus and property rights issues. Speakers included civil rights activist, David Horowitz, David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Greg Narag, a ’89 Colgate alumnus and radio news anchor and reporter, and John “Rocky” Willard ’65 Colgate alumnus, real estate attorney and entrepreneur.
 
Student speakers were repeatedly cheered. Leigh Cuttino ’05, Mark Bello ’08 and Sean Devlin ’05 led a group of 200 students to the office of President Rebecca Chopp in James B. Colgate Hall. She seemed alternatively distressed and bemused as Sean Devlin read the students demands and accepted a petition signed by more than 1,256 students and alumni.
 
Students made 13 demands generally aimed at reaffirming the tradition and rights of Greek organizations to remain and flourish at Colgate University, to give Colgate students the same rights enjoyed by those who attend government-owned schools, and to debate the issues of the school’s land grab and policies prohibiting students from participating in clubs or organizations not formally approved by the University.
 
In 1989, faculty members voted 134 to 37 to abolish Greek life at Colgate University. Another vote was taken in 2001, with 140 to 40 faculty members voting to eliminate fraternities and sororities. Only two faculty members attended today’s rally. The University administration sent an “observer” to photograph attendees.
 
F.A.C.T. and concerned alumni are investigating next steps, including legal action against the sale of houses and in defense of the civil rights of any student who may be expelled or suspended for exercising their First Amendment rights of free association.

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Good first step towards the banning of all fraternities. Kudos!

Edit: Unless, of course, you have a good argument for why they should want fraternities at their school. You have the right to 'freedom of association', but not freedom of association without consequences -- and in this case, one of those consequences may be that you can't attend Colgate.

Interesting idea that it is okay to expel students in unapproved groups. What if it were a Christian University expelling emebers of gay rights organizations?

Well, Joe, let me tell you something about the First Amendment. Rights to free association exist so that people can only be punished for actually committing crimes, and so that assembling for non-criminal activity can't become a crime in itself. However, I can understand your ethos: most tyrannies have established consequences for "free" association in organizations that are not endorsed and run by the tyrants in power.

As far as whether the school WANTS fraternities, their mission is to educate the students in science and literature. It says so in their charter. What students do outside of class, and off campus, should be none of their business, so long as it is not totally heinous. And people shouldn't be held accountable as a group for crimes they never even committed.

Colgate might be able to legally do away with the first amendment on campus, even though they promise to support student rights, but the purpose of the first amendment is to be a safeguard for what people would want to ban on moral grounds.

quote:

Interesting idea that it is okay to expel students in unapproved groups. What if it were a Christian University expelling emebers of gay rights organizations?

To be honest -- sure. Though us secularists have just as much right to use our influence to try and convert Christian universities into secular institutions.

At my place of study, Georgetown, we've mostly done that. Pro-Choice groups are not allowed to be officially recognized, but they're still here. Catholic In Name Only, you might say the school is.

Hint: If you want open up the playing field on these grounds, secularism usually wins out in the end.

In terms of contributing to the life of the mind, a gay person is morally and ethically and intellectually his own man/woman, and innately the equal of any other. Any university which tries to keep them out is going to be at a comparative disadvantage for talent, and that includes those (like me) who would not support, unless I could change it from within or without, an institution I deemed openly hostile to gays and lesbians.