The ODE this morning points to a small battle between our dearest friends The Insurgent and the University administration. Well, okay, mail services.

Apparently The Insurgent doesn’t qualify for use of the University’s non-profit bulk mailing discount. Seems odd, as the entire time I spent at the OC we used the bulk mail price to send out issues to alumns. The Frohn insists this was in the works before this issue of The Insurgent, but I don’t feel particularly inclined to believe him. Given his incredibly spineless history as University President, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he’s concerned with the University’s image and is making up an excuse. They should just mail the damn things, and proceed with corrections to the rate from there. It doesn’t seem like student groups were informed of this new policy in an efficient and timely manner, so the right thing to do is mail these copies of The Insurgent and change the policy going forward.

My favorite part of the article, though, is this bit:

University student Zachary White filed a grievance with the ASUO against the publication April 13.

“As a student minister at the Newman Center, and as a faithful Catholic who has never ridiculed the beliefs of others, I find it intolerable and contrary to the University’s mission of tolerance and non-discrimination to use public funds to allow for discrimination of a religious group on campus,” according to White’s grievance.

Never ridiculed the beliefs of others, eh? You ever recited the Nicene Creed there, papist? I mean, that’s sort of a defacto ridicule of non-Christian beliefs*. Never? So you’re one of those folks who thinks all beliefs are equally valid? I mean, really, you going to file a grievance against the ODE for allowing Ailee Slater to say that Hamas’s viewpoint could use some improvement?

Ridicule of belief is, frankly, an incredibly important aspect of the war of ideas. Moreover, it’s good, old-fashioned fun. Regardless of the merits of The Insurgent’s claims, they have a right to publish them as they see fit. Frankly, I think it’s incredibly myopic to say that Christianity has had nothing but a negative influence on western culture over the past 2000 years. Much of cultural development, especially in the areas of philosophy and science, are the direct result of Christianity’s influence. Sure, science goes back to Aristotle in some form, but to deny the influence of Aquinas is completely stupid as far as I’m concerned. Hell, Newton was a Puritan and it’s arguable that those beliefs stongly influenced his drive to understand the natural world. Note: I am an atheist, but I want to point out how incredibly silly I think The Insurgent’s position is.

Anyway, digressions aside, White needs to grow up and realize that nobody has a right not to be offended. The University needs to just go ahead and send the damn commie rags because that’s the right thing to do. And, lastly, I need a damn nap because I am cranky.
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*note, I am totally fine with ridiculing the beliefs of others, as some beliefs are patently stupid.

The Student Insurgent tonight asked the Student Senate for $850 in surplus funds in order to take eight members to the Eleventh Annual Anarchist Book Fair. This is their second special request of the year for funds to go on a trip, the first asking for $800 out of surplus to attend a conference. They wanted to bring eight people along on their trip, but it was quickly revealed that some of the people going were not fee-paying students. While the ASUO Executive deserves credit for bringing the issue to the attention of the Senate, it was Don Goldman who admitted when pressed that two of the people coming along were not fee-paying students. Who were the two people? One is unknown, but the other was John Walsh, the on campus NORML advocate who’s been a part of the Insurgent Collective for 12 years and is unfortunately not related to ASUO President Adam Walsh.

Considering that paying for non-fee students to go on trips is a gross violation of the spirit- if not the letter- of the Green Tape Notebook, the Senate ultimately voted to stop discussion with only Mike Filippelli dissenting.

If you think we’re going over the top here, I assure you: we only do so when our survival is at stake. The situation is not exactly unprecedented, of course: the question of what can be printed on campus is perennial. I even dimly recall one of these controversies myself. I think it provides a teachable moment, although it’ll take a while to lay out in detail.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I’ll begin.

Dateline January 2001, when Southworth was still fresh in our minds. The good ol’ Student Insurgent, just being adorable, decided to tackle the issue of animal research. Being insurgents, their approach involved reproducing a primer from the Animal Liberation Front on effective ways to commit sabotage and property damage - and being students, they juxtaposed it with a list of various professors’ names and home addresses. Emerald coverage here.

Not surprisingly, many people felt this was going a bit far. While the professors were public figures - the same way that members of the ASUO Senate are public figures, for example - the Insurgents weren’t just calling the professors “silly [and] self-aggrandizing” - they seemed to be tacitly recommending the perpetration of violent acts against them. Emerald outrage here.

The PFC, in its frequently assumed capacity as a moral compass, swung ponderously into action. While they approved the group’s budget and mission statement, they placed the money in a holding fund and denied the group access to it pending resolution of the legal issues. Again, let me stress: the paper printed the home addresses of these professors alongside an Animal Liberation Front handout on how to best commit acts of property damage, and their budget passed PFC. Emerald argle-bargling here. Unfortunately, the Insurgent’s web presence doesn’t contain this issue (nor has it been updated for the last three years) but their somewhat unconvincing claim to be merely fostering a dialogue seems to have been listened to. (I’m sure that the presence of collective member Willie Thompson on PFC at the time had nothing to do with this.)

And what happened? Well, of course, the PFC was flagrantly exceeding their authority, and got their asses handed back to them. The Insurgent is still with us, and the campus is the richer for it, lunatics though they may be. Emerald flapdoodling here. Our own response is locked up in a PDF file halfway down this page (Issue VII) but is worth quoting:

On an aesthetic level, [the Insurgent] reads more like a parody of itself, a grab-bag of mindless rants, dialectical arguments, and unmitigated hypocrisy. It’s ugly, poorly edited and barely laid out. The spelling is wrong, the graphics are pointless, the headlines are non sequiturs, the content is reprinted filler and the logic is circular… That said, the Insurgent does not, by any means, deserve to lose its funding, not this year at least. If the PFC really is afraid of a lawsuit against the Insurgent “jeopardizing the fee”, as so many student government wonks often dread, they’re just not familiar with the First Amendment case law… While extreme, [the Insurgent’s] beliefs are relevant to much of the curriculum, from sociology to biology and women’s studies. In the short run, Frohnmayer could rule otherwise and the tradition of allowing unpopular political speech in the court system would reverse the outcome.

Nice work there, Bill (I think). Once more for the record: home addresses, primer on sabotage, budget and mission statement passed PFC.

To paraphrase Patrick Henry: if this be hate speech, make the most of it! You sack of bastards.

I will be on a panel about Campus Media Ethics this evening at 7pm in Allen 221. It should be rather interesting, Jan Montry and some dude from the Insurgent will also be there. Y’all should come on by to:

SMELL: Some Guy From The Insurgent!
HEAR: Jan Answer Some Questions!
SEE: Me In A Suit! [It’s totally hot, I do not lie!]