Here is one more example we recently published:
Univ. of Ala. Considering Penalties for Political Incorrectness
By Hugh McInnish
Comes now a most amazing story from the campus of the University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa. It's another one of those race things, and the story goes like this: They've just had their SGA election down there and it didn't come out right. You know what that means: The results were politically incorrect and the black students needed to find some basis for complaint. They, of course, found it.
Their complaint? Two black candidates were not invited to speak at a cookout. According to a dispatch from the Associated Press these candidates "have filed complaints with the school's Board of Elections, alleging that they were excluded from a political cookout held last Monday."
Now this cookout was arranged by a group calling itself Students for a Better SGA, and it was apparently a purely private party since "school officials said that the cookout was sponsored by a non-sanctioned organization." There was no obligation to let all candidates speak, they added.
This to the untrained, politically-incorrect mind would seem to be the end of it. After all there is, you know, this old parchment called the Constitution, and it has frequently been thought to guarantee certain freedoms, including free speech and the freedom to conduct our private affairs as we please. But the academic mind empowers its possessor with a mental acuity much beyond that of the ordinary, and the results are sometimes remarkable.
Witness now the reaction of one Valerie Phillips, Associate Dean of Student Affairs. Never mind the school officials previously quoted. The AP story said that she "did not say which candidates would be sanctioned, if any, but said that punishments could range from lenient to harsh." Phillips further said, "It could be community service, letters of reprimand, non-academic probation. Of course, the highest sanction would be disqualification."
So it seems that Ms. Phillips has pretty much made up her mind. Notwithstanding the facts that the cookout was a private affair, that the sponsors had the right to invite to speak those whom they pleased, that the matter has not been adjudicated yet, and that the University has no authority over the private affairs of its students anyway, she is already openly considering penalties that could be "harsh." What the legal or moral basis for imposing such penalties might be has not been mentioned. It is enough, apparently, to cite the black complaints and the politically incorrect outcome of the election.
