Pissed at my Uni

[Nathan F]

OK, so, we have a organization here called the Issues Committee that invites speakers and coordinates events around speakers. They are, admittedly, a liberally biased committee, with 3 conservative members and 25 liberal (yes, that's right, 3 vs. 25). Me and some of my friends went to hear Sy Hersch, a liberal anti-war journalist from the New Yorker, speak, recently, and got the opportunity to talk to a representative of the Committee. Of course, this guy was pretty moderate compared to the others. One of my friends had been to all the speakers who had been invited in the last year or so, and this was the FIRST ONE to not compare the US to Nazi Germany. When asked why they refused to get a single conservative speaker, he stalled for a second, and began to give the old "Well, it's because, uhm, well, really it's a complicated matter...blah blah blah..." when he finally fabricated a nice response, it was "Well, really, conservative speakers cost too much, and liberal speakers are much cheaper." I thought, "WTF? You are given money by the university each year, money that comes from the tuitions of students like me! I don't want my money going to an organization like this that refuses to bring any moderate/conservative speaker!" I was talking to this with one of the friends who was present at the speech and he had done some background research. Apparently, the Issues Committee is given $46,000 each semester to spend on bringing speakers! Yet one conservative speaker is too expensive? One would think that if they are able to afford John Ritter, they would be able to afford, say, Daniel Flynn (who, might I add, costs $1000 to speak at an event). I'm just damn near sick and tired of the university giving my money to these people to spend on liberal speakers but not spend on moderate or conservative speakers.

[TrailerParkJawa]

It sucks they dont have a fair balance of speakers. Im not sure they cant really find an affordable conservative. Im sure it is more a case of they dont want to.

[Joe]

Uni? Are you submitting to European cultural imperialism, Nathan?

[Nathan F]

It sucks they dont have a fair balance of speakers. Im not sure they cant really find an affordable conservative. Im sure it is more a case of they dont want to.

That's exactly what it is. Like I said, we have already found and suggested an affordable conservative, and we know the dollar number as to what they are getting paid.

[Nathan F]

Uni? Are you submitting to European cultural imperialism, Nathan?

Argh, the eeeevil cultural imperialists! They can't physically take over the world any more, so they are CULTURALLY taking over the world now!

[Worlds Spanner]

Heh. I've never worked on something where we had funding, so I've only put together student and/or faculty discussion panels.

We usually have to settle for a really smart moderate who can argue a conservative position as a sort of devil's advocate.

It's lame all right, but it sort of works. Also, we try to get the left side to be silly to make up for them being so many.

E.G. last fall when Iraq was being discussed we had a student panel discussing the basic morality of war, and we could only get 1 pro war person against 2 anti-war people.

So I went out on a limb and arguing straight pacifism (in regards to Iraq and all the way up to the idea that int'l sympathy from 9/11 was enough that we could have gotten rid of our military entirely), while the pro-war guy was pro-war and the third guy argued that war was OK but THIS war wasn't.

It was wierd byt it worked.

[Darth Fanboy]

One would think that if they are able to afford John Ritter, they would be able to afford, say, Daniel Flynn (who, might I add, costs $1000 to speak at an event).

I hear Ritter's hard to book these days though.

[Nathan F]

One would think that if they are able to afford John Ritter, they would be able to afford, say, Daniel Flynn (who, might I add, costs $1000 to speak at an event).

I hear Ritter's hard to book these days though.

BTW, this isn't the late actor John Ritter, it's the ex-UN anti-war weapons inspector John Ritter.

[The Dark]

E.G. last fall when Iraq was being discussed we had a student panel discussing the basic morality of war, and we could only get 1 pro war person against 2 anti-war people.

Are you serious? Damn...when we did a discussion in my Ethics course, we had about 20 pro-war, 4 neutral, and me all by my lonesome opposed to the war.

[Worlds Spanner]

And the 2 anti-war folks were after one was kicked out.

I go to one of the most Left schools in the country. Agnew didn't call it 'The Kremlin on the Crum' for no reason.