Did St. Thomas reject a group [YAF], a speaker [Star Parker] - or range of ideas?

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | April 14, 2008 | KATHERINE KERSTEN

[rhema]

Star Parker is a bestselling author who travels the country speaking to young audiences about the harmful impact of abortion, especially in minority communities. What better place than the University of St. Thomas -- an urban, Catholic campus -- for this dynamic African-American woman to bring her prolife message?

For almost two months, St. Thomas' Students for Human Life organization looked forward to sponsoring Parker's planned appearance on campus April 21. Her fee was to be split by the St. Thomas Standard, a conservative student newspaper, and the Young America's Foundation, a Herndon, Va., group that brings conservative speakers and ideas to college campuses.

Students for Human Life applied to the university's Student Life Committee for a campus site where Parker could speak. But the committee turned thumbs down. Star Parker, it seems, was not welcome at St. Thomas.

Katie Kieffer, an alumna who helped plan Parker's visit, says that Vice President for Student Affairs Jane Canney, who oversees the committee, blocked the way. "She told me, 'As long as I'm a vice president at St. Thomas, we will not deal with Young America's Foundation,'" said Kieffer.

Canney did not return a call seeking comment. But Doug Hennes, a spokesman for St. Thomas, confirmed that those were Canney's words. On Thursday, the university released a statement that it "was not comfortable in allowing the Young America's Foundation to be involved with the Parker event."

"The foundation paid for commentator Ann Coulter to speak at St. Thomas in 2005, and her remarks were considered highly inflammatory and disrespectful to the mission and values of the university," the statement said.

Ann Coulter is a well-known firebrand. But Star Parker? What's the university afraid of if she speaks?

[rhema]

St. Thomas seems comfortable with speakers from the liberal side of the political spectrum. In 2007, for example, the school hosted DFL senatorial candidate and satirist Al Franken, who is known for harsh attacks and raised eyebrows in January at Carleton College for mocking the speech and gestures of a conservative student.

[Caleb1411]

So the bloodless CINOs get a case of the vapors contemplating another Ann Coulter. How touching. Yet they invite Franken and James Fetzer.

I like Parker's vow at the end of Kersten's column: "I've got St. Thomas on my calendar, and I plan to come on April 21," she said. "If they won't let me on campus, I'm willing to talk out on the street."

I may just make plans to join the congregation at Cleveland and Summit or wherever she's speaking.

[Cicero]

I have had a longstanding relationship with Logos, a journal published at St. Thomas. For the most part, it is reliably orthodox.

http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/logos/

I don’t know too much about the college or the faculty as a whole, but at least some of the things they do are good.

But this administrator seems to be a real nut case. Too bad.

[sageb1]

A good amount of marxist/liberation theory there.

[TheSarce]

Parker won't be so easily dissuaded. "I've got St. Thomas on my calendar, and I plan to come on April 21," she said. "If they won't let me on campus, I'm willing to talk out on the street."

Go Star! This could get interesting...

[ViLaLuz]

“Ann Coulter is a well-known firebrand. But Star Parker? What’s the university afraid of if she speaks?”

She’s black and conservative.

[Cicero]

Sorry to hear it. Maybe the donor who put up the money for the journal had some say in keeping it orthodox.

[Red Boots]

In 2006, James Fetzer, a University of Minnesota Duluth professor and 9/11 conspiracy theorist, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd under the auspices of the St. Thomas Justice and Peace Studies program. "The attacks of September 11 were orchestrated on the American people by their own government," he told the audience, according to the Aquin newspaper at the university.

This is OK, I guess, not immflammatory, but a conservative is ?

[MplsSteve]

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[rhema]

St. Thomas controversy has happy ending

According to a St. Thomas “bulletin update,” the university extended the invitation Monday after the decision was made to use St. Thomas funds to pay her speaker’s fee and related expenses, thus giving university officials more involvement in managing the event. Parker, a syndicated columnist, is active in the pro-life movement. Critics of St. Thomas’ original decision not to invite Parker said the decision diminished the university’s position on pro-life issues. ‘St. Thomas proudly functions within the Catholic intellectual tradition,’ said Dr. Mark Dienhart, executive vice president…. ‘We are now and always have been fully supportive of the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. This issue has always been about what is the appropriate involvement of the university in scheduling speakers, not about any particular speaker or his or her message. We are glad we have reached this agreement with Ms. Parker.’