I usually avoid reading my college's newspaper, mostly because it is not very good. One can only stand so many articles about what students think about snow, or which school supply they cannot do without. They even have a token right wing hack columnist, who has written columns about how liberals oppress free speech (with pies) and how everything Bush ever does is right.
But today, while waiting for a sandwich, I happened to pick up a copy of the paper, and I read this letter to the editor, USG Wrong to Pay for Coulter
Needless to say, I nearly lost my appetite. I regret that a more polished writer did not take the time to write to the paper, since I think there are other compelling reasons not to have Coulter come, but let me first recap what the letter writer said:
First of all, Coulter is a bomb-thrower who explicitly calls for violence against liberals.
Secondly, the College Republicans here at Uconn got into trouble last year over another controversial speaker, the homophobic and racist "Warrior," the former WWF wrestler, whose remarks led the College Republicans to issue a public apology to the student body.
Third, the funding for Coulter is outlandishly expensive, the most ever spent on one speaker by the Undergraduate Student Government, and was approved under an apparent conflict of interest. (that is, Emily Salisbury, the chairman of the College Republicans, who initiated the funding request, was also a USG Senator who voted on the matter rather than abstaining. Apparently Senators who feel there may be a conflict of interest are supposed to recuse themselves from voting, but Ms Salisbury, in typical Republican fashion, saw no conflict, and voted to approve a record amount of funding for a student organization with which she is involved. She and a CR colleague were admonished by the commitee for this conflict.)
The letter writer also cites some Coulter quotes calling for violence against Muslims and liberals, but makes the unfortunate statement that The first Amendment does not allow people like Ann Coulter to spread racist and conservative(my emphasis) thought on public tax dollars at this university which I think will only give fodder to conservatives ready to play the victim and complain that liberals are oppressing their free speech.
What he should have said was that someone like Coulter, who has no intellectual standards, does not belong on any university campus anywhere, except perhaps in a course examining the intellectual bankruptcy of the modern Republican Party. Coulter's books contain little more than insults and incitements to violence, and her less than rigorous relationship with the facts has been well documented all over the internet. Is it merely the intention of the Uconn College Republicans to cause outrage and offend people? Do they even realize that Coulter is at least as bad, if not worse, than the speaker who last year caused them such embarrassment? Finally are there no credible conservative speakers who could be hired? (I think most Kossacks know the answer to that.)
The main problem I have is that as a Grad Student, this is almost none of my business. We have our own Senate, and our own funding. But I also think that it reflects poorly on the entire University.
So what I am asking is that if any Uconn alumni read this, please call or email the school and tell them what you think. I know they love to ask for money from Alums; do you really want your money going to pay Ann Coulter?
Also, if there are any undergrads reading, you should be asleep! Don't you have class tomorrow? Seriously, though, get together. The least that can be done is to go to her speech, and boo and heckle, or get up and ask her questions about her loose relationship with the facts, etc. Google "coulter lies" and you will get more than enough ammo.
Also, any suggestions would be appreciated.