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LU Democrats wary of Falwell proposal
Updated 3:52 p.m.:
After meeting with Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. today, members of Liberty University’s Campus Democrats club said they are developing a proposal that would let the club regain officially recognized status while promoting a pro-life agenda.
The club also is drafting an apology to the school and a retraction of some statements it made to the news media last week after the university revoked the club’s official recognition.
Maria Childress, the club’s staff adviser, said Falwell and other administrators criticized the club for its comments to the news media. A meeting of club representatives and university administrators lasted almost two hours today.
The retraction and apology probably will come within 48 hours, and members are deciding what to say in the statement, Childress said.
The club is expected to retract a statement that accused university administrator Mark Hine of saying a person could not be both a Democrat and a Christian, Childress said.
Childress said today’s meeting cleared up many misunderstandings about what transpired as a result of the club’s losing its official status at LU.
“It was a productive meeting in that manner and we were able to clear up some of the issues,“ Childress said.
Earlier:
Members of Liberty University’s once-recognized College Democrats club say they hope a meeting today with Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. will lead to their reinstatement as an accepted campus group.
Falwell said the club would need to align itself with a pro-life wing of the Democratic Party before Liberty could restore privileges, such as use of formal meeting rooms and the university logo on its communications.
But even without those privileges, the club members can meet informally in “common areas” such as the student center or cafeteria, Falwell said Tuesday.
“No policeman would be running up and saying, ‘you have to stop meeting, you’re a Democratic club,’” if a group were to gather in the student center, Falwell said.
The meeting-on-campus issue seemed to revolve around how strictly the university applies its conduct code for unofficial clubs.
Mark Hine, Liberty’s vice president of student affairs, said he met last week with one of the College Democrats’ officers and also its staff adviser. They discussed an e-mail Hine had sent to notify club members that the university was revoking its one-year recognition of the Democratic club.
Liberty revoked its recognition of College Democrats because members supported the party’s platform and candidates who were pro-choice on abortion.
Although the e-mail quoted an LU conduct code that says unapproved clubs were not “permitted to meet on campus,” Hine said he made it clear in the meeting with staff adviser Maria Childress and club officer Jan Dervish that meetings were not being prohibited.
“I made every attempt to make it clear how we should interpret what was being said” in the e-mail, Hine said. “In all my years at Liberty, I’ve never seen a student group approached and thrown out of a room because they were having a discussion that doesn’t meet with university approval.
“That hasn’t occurred and won’t occur,” Hine said.
Childress and Dervish said they left the meeting with the impression that the club would not be allowed to meet on campus.
Hine said a misunderstanding could have persisted because “I was not bringing them great news,” but during the meeting he mentioned places on campus where the College Democrats could hold meetings.
“Hopefully we can hammer some of this out” in today’s meeting, Hine said.
Falwell said he sent e-mails to several students over the weekend telling them the Democratic club could still meet on campus, provided it did not use the university’s name as part of its identity.
Only one student replied to the e-mail, Falwell said, so he included the free-meetings assurance in his comments to the news media as well, hoping to reach the club members that way.
“We’ll make that clear in the meeting” today, Falwell said.
The chancellor also said Democratic clubs have existed on campus without formal recognition for most of the university’s 37 years.
“We have plenty of unendorsed, unrecognized groups on campus that have nowhere else to meet” except in a common area or unused classroom, Falwell said. Hine said study groups often meet in such locations.
Discussions continued Tuesday about Democratic Party factions that might be acceptable to Liberty administrators.
Childress said she and some club members had discussions on Facebook with Virginia Democrats for Life, a group of Democrats who oppose abortion. Gregory McKinney, a board member for the group, said it’s just getting started in Virginia and hopes to organize chapters on three or four campuses starting next fall.
Childress said the College Democrats also were thinking about another group known as Faithful Democrats, which describes itself as “a Christian-focused Democratic community online,” that is associated with the national party.
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Reader Reactions
Mr. C. Isn’t that enough?
AP - “the Liberty Democrats (who are not “real” Democrats anyway)“. I suppose you mean their being tethered to the “Liberty Way” or their comfort with attending Liberty in the first place. Is there something else?
Thehar2 writes —“Jerry worked and preached all his life against such things as abortion ,why should even be in question here?“—
No, that was just his latest way to divide people and turn a buck. He cut his teeth on telling people the evils of blacks getting equal rights and going to school with decent white folks. And, of course, the abomination of interracial marriage!
I think the Liberty Democrats (who are not “real” Democrats anyway) should connect up with the Liberty relentless masturbators. They already have an advisor. They already have sanctioned meetings. After seeing their platform, I doubt if anyone could tell them apart anyway.
“The meeting-on-campus issue seemed to revolve around how strictly the university applies its conduct code for unofficial clubs.“
That, my friends, is fascism.
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[Mark] Hine said he made it clear in the meeting with staff adviser Maria Childress and club officer Jan Dervish that meetings were not being prohibited.
“I made every attempt to make it clear how we should interpret what was being said” in the e-mail, Hine said. “In all my years at Liberty, I’ve never seen a student group approached and thrown out of a room because they were having a discussion that doesn’t meet with university approval.
————————————————————
Hine, you’re a tool. Every attempt to make it clear except to say, “You’re still allowed to meet on campus.“ His proof of reassurance is “we’ve never had to bust up a meeting before”. You’re lying, Hine.
Then the authoritarian blames the students: “Hine said a misunderstanding could have persisted because “I was not bringing them great news”. There’s a curable disease running around that campus.
“We have plenty of unendorsed, unrecognized groups on campus that have nowhere else to meet” except in a common area or unused classroom, Falwell said. Hine said study groups often meet in such locations.“ Doc said, “We have plenty of groups EXCEPT ONE THAT COULD ONLY VOTE IT’S PRINCIPLES BY THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE. That one we would have bust to up.“ Dopy gulped.
Democrats for Life appears to have allocated chapters by state before this incident because they are a lobbying and pressure group. So this xenotransplantation would probably kill the group’s ability to “discuss the politics” of a pro-choice candidate like Obama in order to resolve for themselves whether the candidate’s position was unacceptable. As well it would occupy some substantial fraction of their time to lobbying or pressuring for pro-choice positions earlier devoted to campaigning. And it nullifies their ability to campaign for a pro-choice candidate.
According to the fascist Liberty Way, a student who campaigned for a pro-choice candidate could be expelled. That’s a violation of that student’s right of political expression.
“Childress said the College Democrats also were thinking about another group known as Faithful Democrats, which describes itself as “a Christian-focused Democratic community online,” that is associated with the national party.“ Oh, well, I guess Liberty will unblock them at the Great Liberty Firewall.
Conmen.
Great showing, JacksonPollock. Plus you’ve saved me a lot of work.
Jerry prided himself on his tight ship. Too bad Bly never met his mutiny. I hope to God those students at least get a reeducation after getting out off the Bounty.
“Why should the university pay out money to these groups? To be fair & politically correct? Forget it. What’s next? They’ll have to pay for the Atheists’ support group too?“ Don’t you worry your little mind, VA_Jen. A band of pirates in there and the Bounty will truly deserve the name Liberty.
when civil marriage is abolished
VA. The “political correctness run amok,“ as you refer to it, is actually democracy. You, my friend, and LU wouldn’t know what democracy is if it jumped up and bit you on the . . . foot.
For democracy to work it demands the exchange of intellectual ideas that allow for the people to make an informed decision. With LU denying the students of the Democratic Club the right to assemble and discuss ideas that may be contrary to the university’s simplistic ideology, is to deny their students the right to participate in a democratic society.
But up on Candlers Mountain there is no democracy; there is only totalitarianism by a despot (and the late despot) who wants to control the thoughts of the students and turn out, not thinkers, but little robots who know nothing but what the “university” wants them to know.
It’s a shame the young students learned a lesson in totalitarianism and how it is often easier to bend to a despot than to fight a totalitarian government, even if that governing body is wrong. No, there is no democracy on Candler Mountain, and the students of that Bible school there have, as always at that school, learned nothing but how to admit to wrong actions when the wrong that was done was done to them. Kind of like VP Cheney shooting his friend in the face, and then his friend apologizing. Again, as was the case under the Bush administration for eight long years, the world at Candlers Mountain has been turned upside down. Wrong is right; night is day; east is west; mind-control is education . . . it goes on and on.
And Punto. Your editing is excellent. The clarity of the article is weak. Peace.
The 3:52 pm update is somewhat poorly worded. It would have been more logical to put the paragraph “The retraction and apology probably will come within 48 hours, and members are deciding what to say in the statement, Childress said” after the following paragraph where a retraction is actually indicated. Even so, what is the “apology” that is indicated? Who’s apologizing? What for? The narrative of the article needs editing and clarification.
Good for Liberty. I am so sick of the political correctness run amok. Liberty makes its views crystal clear, and supporting pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage platforms is not one of them. Why should the university pay out money to these groups? To be fair & politically correct? Forget it. What’s next? They’ll have to pay for the Atheists’ support group too? Lynchburg Wiccans? As a private university they don’t have to be fair & split money for every group that wants to congregate on campus.
Why is anyone surprised by this decision by LU…I hope LU is successful in changing the name from Candlers Mountain; the gentle Quakers would be mortified by such goings on.
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