|
a |
|
Preeti on the Web |
|
Providing Food for Thought |
|
Grant Christian Fraternity Official Status |
|
Universities are supposed to be a “marketplace of ideas” where students and scholars of diverse viewpoints can freely express and debate their opinions. |
|
Don’t engage in reverse discrimination |
|
March 22, 2005 |
|
To Contact Preeti: preetiontheweb at yahoo dot com |
|
Please note that all text on this webpage is copyrighted ©. Please do not quote or paraphrase without using proper citations. |
|
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” –Voltaire Let me begin this column by stating that I’m 100% opposed to using religion to justify denial of equal rights. I have some serious issues with the “Christian right” (which happens to be mostly wrong). As a card-carrying member of the ACLU, I also think that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) should grant Christian fraternity Alpha Iota Omega (AIO) the status of official student organization. For those not tuned into the current clash of politics and religion transpiring at UNC, let me fill you in. UNC denied AIO recognition as an official student organization after it refused to sign the University’s Non-Discrimination and Sexual Orientation Policy. As an evangelical Christian fraternity, AIO said that signing the policy would force it to accept members who did not share its beliefs or live according to its code of conduct. Without recognition as an official student organization, AIO cannot obtain University funds for activities or University server space for its website. It also will have more difficulty reserving campus venues for events and activities. Last year, AIO sued UNC for violation of its First Amendment rights to free speech, free assembly and free exercise of religion. In early March, a preliminary injunction ordered UNC to temporarily grant AIO official status while the lawsuit is in progress. UNC should grant AIO official status and render the lawsuit moot. Here’s why. Universities are supposed to be a forum where students and scholars of diverse viewpoints can freely express and debate their opinions. This debate includes allowing students’ to create groups where they can form a collective voice and advocate their views. Hence, today we have student groups at my university (Duke) as diverse as the Conservative Union, United Students Against Sweatshops, Buddhist Community at Duke, Duke Allies (an LGBT group), and Students for Life. In essence, universities are a veritable “marketplace of ideas.” To deny one group official status due to the content of their beliefs (in this case, disagreement with the Non-Discrimination and Sexual Orientation Policy) is to exclude that group from participation in the academic marketplace of ideas. Of course, the current clash between UNC and AIO is about more than just beliefs—it’s about the ground rules for how a group can select who its members can be. It’s just plain common sense that a group would only want members who share its beliefs, for common belief is what holds a group together. Would an anti-war group, for example, want members who were pro-war? Student groups should be free to discriminate against whomever they want on whatever basis they want. (Ironically, fraternities and sororities already discriminate on the basis of sex.) It makes sense that the NAACP may choose to exclude a KKK member. It makes sense that a pro-Israel group may choose to exclude a pro-Palestinian individual. And it makes sense that an evangelical Christian group would want to exclude those unwilling to share its religious beliefs or religious code of conduct. The counterargument is that UNC should take a firm uncompromising stance against discrimination of all forms and deny recognition to any student group that fails to sign its Non-Discrimination and Sexual Orientation Policy. Permitting discriminatory groups on campus, however, does not at all compromise a university’s moral commitment to non-discrimination. UNC can make clear its moral stand through non-discrimination policies in admitting students and hiring faculty and staff. When it comes to peaceful, non-violent expression of ideas, though, universities should be a safe sanctuary were all ideas are welcome, no matter how abhorrent they may seem. Universities grant professors academic freedom. Duke allowed the controversial Palestinian Solidarity Movement to host a conference on its campus. The Chronicle, Duke’s student-run newspaper, ran a piece by columnist Philip Kurian that many found to be anti-Semitic. Clearly, an institution, whether a university or a newspaper, can oppose discrimination and prejudice while still granting the opposition a voice to challenge that institution’s belief. Sponsorship does not equal endorsement. So, in keeping with universities’ tradition of being a forum for the debate of diverse ideas, UNC should grant AIO official status. Anything less is reverse discrimination. |