posted March 21, 2003 10:11 AM              

Chronicle of Higher Education

Thursday, March 13, 2003

Virginia Tech Bans Speakers With Extreme Views and Relaxes
Antidiscrimination Clause

By MEGAN ROONEY

The governing board of Virginia Tech voted on Monday to bar advocates of
extreme political views from speaking on the campus. Under the new policy,
student groups must seek the president's approval if they wish to invite
speakers who support or take part in activities that could be construed as
"domestic violence or terrorism."

At the same meeting, the Board of Visitors voted to change the university's
antidiscrimination clause so that it no longer prohibits discrimination on
the basis of sexual orientation.

Those decisions were made at the same quarterly meeting on Monday at which
the
governing board effectively ended the use of affirmative action in
admissions, hiring, and financial aid (The Chronicle, March 12).

"That meeting was an unbelievable step backward," said Edd Sewell, who, as
president of the Faculty Senate at Virginia Tech, is a nonvoting member of
the
Board of Visitors. "I have been reading a book about Germany in the
1930s, and I almost feel like I'm experiencing déjà vu."

Neither the resolution concerning political extremists nor the resolution
about sexual orientation was listed on the agenda that was made available
to board members before the meeting.

The resolution concerning political speakers on the campus follows a
February speech given by a member of Earth First, an environmental group
that advocates such tactics as preventing logging by sitting in trees or
chaining oneself to a logging site. According to Lawrence G. Hincker, a
spokesman for the university, that speech raised the ire of a group of
professors from the department of forestry. Furthermore, the member of the
Board of Visitors who introduced the resolution, Mitchell O. Carr, is
president of the Augusta Lumber Co., based in Waynesboro, Va., and is a
former director of the National Hardwood Lumber Association.

Mr. Carr did not return telephone calls for comment, and Charles W.
Steger, the university's president, also was not available.

The resolution reads in part: "Be it resolved, no person, persons, or
organizations will be allowed to meet on campus or in any facility owned or
leased by the university, if it can be determined that such persons or
organizations advocate or have participated in illegal acts of domestic
violence and terrorism."

While the resolution does not define domestic violence and terrorism, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation's Web Site includes a spectrum of political
groups in its description of domestic terrorism, including white-supremacy
organizations and socialist organizations like the Workers' World Party and
Carnival Against Capitalism. It also cites the Animal Liberation Front and
the Earth Liberation Front, two groups whose representatives have spoken at
Virginia Tech during the past two years.

The university is currently reviewing the resolution with the office of the
state attorney general to ensure its legality, particularly regarding the
Constitutional guarantees of free speech, free assembly, due process, and
equal protection.

In an editorial decrying the resolution, the student newspaper, Collegiate
Times, describes the measure's language as "irrefutably ambiguous," and
says it "could be applied to many speakers and organizations that have
visited
Tech's campus in recent years."

The board also removed sexual orientation from the list of factors-including
race, sex, and national origin-that the university will not use to
discriminate
against students, faculty members, and applicants.

Mr. Hincker said the board made the change to conform Virginia Tech's rules
with
federal and state laws, which do not include gay and lesbian people as a
protected
class of citizens.

On Tuesday, as academic departments met to discuss the pivotal changes
enacted by the Board of Visitors, one professor described the campus mood as
"a
brewing storm."

posted March 21, 2003 01:59 PM            

quote:

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"I have been reading a book about Germany in the
1930s, and I almost feel like I'm experiencing déjà vu."

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