Wells Votes down Republican Club · 10 December 2003
Members of college group call it retribution for holding contrary political views.
By Scott Rapp and David L. Shaw, The Post-Standard, 12/10/03
The Wells College student government organization has denied recognition to the Wells College Republican Club as an official campus group.
Infuriated, Republican Club members have accused the student government association of turning down their request as retribution for "the unpopular political views" they espouse.
The action comes a month after the student Republican group publicly criticized the college faculty for what it sees as liberal or left-leaning bias, claiming professors ignore or ridicule conservative viewpoints expressed in the classroom.
"They don't like what we're doing," said Colleen Curry, the group's treasurer. "We bring a different viewpoint into the picture."
College and student government officials say it's unfair to characterize the student-run board's vote as "retribution." While they decline to discuss the specific reasons the club will not be recognized this spring, they emphasized it can still re-apply at the end of this spring's semester for recognition for next fall.
Without the recognition, the Republican Club does not qualify for yearly budgeted funding generated by the student activity fee, school and club officials said. It can still petition for financial support for events that it sponsors or other club expenditures.
The denial occurred Sunday at a meeting of the student government organization known as the Wells College Collegiate Association. The board is composed of representatives from each campus residential section, representatives from each recognized campus group and the stu- dent government's cabinet.
The vote, taken without discussion, was 11-7 in favor of granting recognition, but 11 students abstained from voting, which doomed the club's request because approval required a two- thirds majority vote, said Ann M. Rollo, college vice president for external affairs.
"I think people were being real cowardly (by abstaining). They don't like us. They were just using it as an excuse to saying 'no' in front of us," Curry said.
Tazeem Pasha, student government president, said the Republican Club was not denied club status, that the student board "cherishes cooperation" to reach a positive end and that the group is welcome to reapply.
Rollo said it was more an issue of the board needing "more time to think about this."
The club, which has about nine members, will pursue appealing the decision and brought it to the attention of college President Lisa Marsh Ryerson on Monday, wrote club President Kristy L. Hochenberger in a prepared statement.
"Sadly, we members of the Republican Club and other students sympathetic to our cause are coming to the conclusion that Wells College is hostile to traditional students," Hochenberger wrote.
Club members met with Ryerson Monday and were told Ryerson will talk to Pasha to learn more about the decision, Hochenberger said.
Ryerson was out of town Tuesday and was unavailable for comment, Rollo said.
The Republican Club this semester conducted a study of the party enrollments of the social science and humanities faculty and found 92 percent were enrolled in the Democratic, Green or Working Families parties.
The student group expressed shock that a Wells professor, responding to the survey, called the Republican students "stupid" and sent a campus-wide e-mail saying the Republicans should be "forcibly lobotomized."
After a one-semester trial period, a campus group can apply for official recognition from the student government's Representative Council, Curry said. More than two dozen campus clubs are recognized and a student Democratic Club organized this semester - the first stage in seeking club recognition, she said.
Rollo said no groups with political affiliations are currently recognized as clubs by the college's student government.
The Republican Club organized in the winter of 2002 and is finishing its trial semester this fall, Curry said.
The club received about $450 from the student government association this semester to send three representatives to a public policy conference in Syracuse and to hold a meet-the-club party on Halloween, Curry said.
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