Rick Sollman

    Students gathering at the Conservative University this July were able to hear from some of the leading experts on affairs in higher education--the students themselves.   Student leaders from Duke University, Brandeis University, and Boston College came to Washington, D.C. to take part in Accuracy in Academia’s student panel, where they relayed some of their own expertise on how to handle campus hypocrisy.

    The instances they relate are a few of the more egregious examples of how biased administrators, faculties, and even student governments are.

    Berin Szoka of Duke University began the discussion by describing the hostile environment that surrounded his campus life after he defended a friend’s letter to the student newspaper. In April, Szoka’s classmate, Jay Strater, responded to an editorial in which he refuted the paper’s claim that there was an overwhelming need for a Hindi Studies major at Duke. The claim was in response to a survey taken by Diya, the South Asian Student group. As Szoka explained, “Diya took a survey of themselves, and said ‘would you oppose the creation of a Hindi Studies major?’ All of them, surprisingly, said, ‘no.’”

    After writing letters concerning the situation of the current Hindi minor--where a mere 17 students make up 4 courses--Strater and Szoka contrasted the situation of other minors that have a much higher enrollment rate, and claimed that a major in that field was not necessary. “Immediately we were called racist, Nazi, white supremacist, you name it,” said Szoka. “So the argument they were now making instead, because they couldn’t possibly say there was a demand for a Hindi major, was that it was simply ‘ethnocentric’ of the University not to have the program,” Szoka told the conference.

    Szoka then told of the tactics employed by the Hindi proponents. “The morning my letter ran in the student paper, I had already started getting hate mail by 11:00 a.m.” Strater had his room broken into over the incident and threats were left written on his computer. One letter Szoka received warned him that, “If we ever see you out of your room WE WILL BEAT YOU WITHIN ONE INCH OF YOUR LIFE and step on you like the little s--- that you are.”

    In addressing the conference, Berin expressed his frustration over how university officials were slow to respond to their safety concerns and selectively turned their backs on the situation. When Duke President Nan Keohane was asked if the University was going to take any measures to ensure the safety of the two students, she merely wondered if they were scared, and dismissed the harassment as just a “scary way of blowing off steam.”

    This response, and others like it, was a visible departure from the usual lengths the school has taken in order to maintain a non-threatening and inclusive university climate. Szoka, through his obvious dismay with the lack of concern shown by school officials, encouraged the students to avoid making knee-jerk reactions like the ones he encountered when evaluating ideas.

    He explained that one should not be discouraged when called such names as “Nazi.” “The only real Nazis on campus, are the PC Nazis that threaten your life.”

    Sarah Bonner of Boston College, told the conference the story of how her campus went under a “Where’s Mary Daly?” watch this past semester. Mary Daly, feminist professor of theology, refused to accept two male students into her “Introduction to Feminist Ethics” course. It was a practice that the school had allowed her to do for years, under the notion that women needed a safe haven away from men.

    Duane Naquin, one of the male students Daly turned away, sought legal action through the Center for Individual Rights, contending that it was simply illegal to bar him from a classroom because he was a man. Boston College responded by placing Daly on administrative leave until she agreed to teach her courses without barring the presence of men. 

    Throughout the semester, campus radicals stood in solidarity with the fallen feminist, while accusing her critics and the school of caving-in to right-wing pressure and of fostering a patriarchal society. Bonner, the chairman of the BC College Republicans, explained the buzz surrounding her campus throughout the Daly affair.

    “College is a place where people make friends and try to have a good time. Receiving death threats and being called sexist does not make for a good time.”

    She encouraged the students to be vocal on campus and to speak up in the face of such blatant instances of double standards. “There’s one thing about being a conservative in a place like Massachusetts (if you notice there are two panelists up here from Massachusetts), it is that you can not remain silent or your thoughts will not be heard.”

    Mary Daly has refused to comply, with BC’s requests that she teach men separately. Daly’s empoloyment has been permanantly terminated in the time since the school ordered her to cease her discrimanatory practices. 

    Freedom Magazine founder Bryan Rudnick told of his dealings with the student government at Brandeis University. His bi-monthly publication had run into trouble this past fall when it published some critical articles on the student government. Since then, the student government has been exacting its revenge on the magazine and its staff. Two student senators were caught removing stacks of the magazine from a distribution point, while another directed a threat at the magazine’s editor.

    Rudnick told of how his magazine came to be. “Initially when I attempted to get an article published in a campus publication, I was told that it was too conservative, or too controversial.” After assembling a staff in the ‘97-‘98 school year, the publication soon found that its conservative voice had gained a wide audience on campus.

    It was when Freedom Magazine dared to publish a series entitled “The Truth About Student Government” that the Senate made its series of movements that subsequently led to cutting the funds allotted to the offending magazine.

    The magazine’s largely conservative viewpoints elicited the predictable labels of “fascism” and “Nazism.” This, despite the fact that Rudnick and several of his staffers are Jewish. But Rudnick warned the conference attendees to avoid employing those tactics. “Don’t go out name-calling like the Left does when they shout ‘fascist,’ ‘racist,’ and ‘Nazi.’ The key to the battle on campus is to be more informed than they are.” This is sound advice that the Brandeis student government could have used, since they were stalled at several steps along the way in their quest to de-fund the magazine, by violating their own rules of conduct. 

    Although the Brandeis undergraduates working on Freedom Magazine pay into a fund that subsidizes student activities, the publication currently does not receive any money from the Brandeis student body. As Rudnick showed the audience, his actions are a prime example of what conservative activism can bring to the campus environment. By being denied the chance to convey conservative ideas through “mainstream” outlets, Freedom Magazine caught the attention of the student body, student government, and area radio shows in such a way that enlivened the campus debate.

    “Our publication comes out every two weeks, whereas the main student paper comes out every week. You can be sure that every week there will be something written about Freedom Magazine in there,” he told the crowd.