Public Money Funds Liberal Speakers at UT
From the College Republicans at the University of Tennessee:

Death Threats and Racial Slurs Funded by UT
Contact: Adrienne Royer
423-505-1107
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2003

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Death threats, hate crimes and political discrimination are currently funded by The University of Tennessee while faculty and administration members ignore the activities.

Thursday, November 13, 2003, Sukhmani Singh Khalsa, a columnist for The Daily Beacon, the UT student newspaper, wrote a column titled, "Liberal Issues Committee Desperately Needs Changes." His column exposed his research that the Issues Committee, a UT Student Activities organization that receives $90,000 from UT each year, has sought to only bring partisan and biased speakers to campus.

According to their website, the Issues Committee is, "…dedicated to providing 'extracurricular education' that examines the most pertinent issues in a creative and balanced manner." However, the Issues Committee has only brought two conservative speakers in the last three years and welcomed speakers such as Scott Ritter, a known propagandist for Saddam Hussein, and Howard Zinn, a Marxist historian.

Amid a lively campus debate over the Issues Committee, Khalsa received evidence that the Issues Committee had made death threats and racial slurs and openly advocated a liberal, partisan agenda through internal e-mails sent to committee members and the faculty advisor, Edee Vaughan, via UT's e-mail system.

According to Hilltopics, UT’s student manual, a student may be expelled "…when it appears that the student has acted in a way which…injures or endangers the welfare of any member of the University community. Such violations include … commission of or attempt or threat to commit rape, murder, felonious assault, arson, or any other felonious crime against person or property."

"We are outraged that a publicly funded campus organization can get away with such racial threats. This committee receives $90,000 dollars a year to promote free and open debate on campus," said John McGary, the outraged chairman of UT College Republicans. "When Khalsa tried to engage the campus in such debate, his life was threatened."

The UT College Republicans hold that The University of Tennessee consistently discriminates against conservative while leaving extremist liberals in charge and unaccountable for their actions. The Issues Committee members along with their advisor, Edde Vaughan, knew what was going on, but they chose to do nothing about it. Their unapologetic hatred for conservatives and numerous racist remarks were simply ignored because of bureaucratic liberal politics within the administration.

"We demand that UT act immediately," McGary explained. "The only acceptable course of action is to disband the Issues Committee and suspend their advisor pending a full independent investigation into how the student activity funding is distributed and the institutional bias which has allowed discrimination against conservative students and minorities.

For more information, please contact Adrienne Royer at 423-505-1107 or aroyer1@utk.edu.

Here's a link to more coverage from UT student blogger Adam Groves. He's got a nice blog - and links galore.

And here is a link to Khalsa's original column.

UPDATE: From today's Daily Beacon:

Recent accusations of bias regarding the UT Issues Committee have prompted the Dean of Students office and Student Activities office to review e-mails sent between committee members regarding a column in The Daily Beacon.

Last week, members of the Issues Committee exchanged e-mails discussing their views concerning the column, written by columnist Sukhmani Singh Khalsa, one in which referred to him as a "raghead."

The e-mails were obtained by Chris Lewis, a former committee member and senior in political science who was not removed from the mailing list, and read aloud during a College Republicans meeting Tuesday night in the Taylor Law Building. Messages sent to and from UT e-mail accounts are stored on a UT server and may be considered public records under the Tennessee Public Records Act, subject to inspection by residents of Tennessee.

I'll be interested to see what Instapundit might have to say about all this.

And here's a follow-up column from Khalsa. Excerpt:

Lewis has had a working relationship with Lamar Alexander and his political director. Lamar and Tucker Carlson also have a relationship. After some talk with Lamar's director, Lewis naturally asked the Issues Committee's adviser if he could extend an invitation for Lamar to attend Carlson's speech. The adviser refused, saying that that would be political and that they wouldn't want to be political.

This is coming from the committee that just a few months ago had Scott Ritter here calling the Bush administration Nazis and calling American troops young slaughterers. Lewis inquired about this sudden change of attitude. The adviser actually said that Scott Ritter was not invited to be political. This is transparent nonsense. But apparently, a man who is a former UT president and one of our senators, who won't be campaigning for a few years, to sit and attend a function is unwelcome. Does the administration know that they have a faculty member setting such a precedent? Incidents like these eventually led to Lewis resign in disgust, but the committee forgot to remove him from their e-mail list. I've had the special privilege of reading their e-mails to each other. This was a forum of seething hate.

Khalsa is a voice of reason, rejecting the allegation that he is trying to turn the Issues Committee into a conservative soapbox. "I just want fairness and free speech," he says. Ah, there's your problem, Mr. Khalsa. The Left doesn't want those things.

UPDATE: Saturday, Nov. 22: Welcome readers visiting via from Instapundit. Scroll up for follow-ups, and also be sure to visit UT blogger Adam Groves' blog for the latest.