Neither the MSU College Republicans nor the MSU Young Americans for Freedom violated the university’s anti-discrimination policy, according to a 126-page report released in the past week by MSU’s Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives.
Both student organizations received notification letters in November 2007 from the office that said MSU was investigating charges of discrimination based on complaints from eight people.
The results of the investigation, which took about five months, didn’t surprise Kyle Bristow, former president of MSU YAF.
“The charges against us were really fabricated,” Bristow said. “The whole thing was a fraud, really politically motivated.”
The complaints were filed after an April 2007 speech by Chris Simcox, which was co-sponsored by the two groups and led to the arrest of five protesters.
Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, is an advocate for stricter laws against illegal immigrants. Each of the protesters arrested were of Chicano/Latino descent.
MSU graduate student Oscar Vega said he complained because he and other students at the event were prohibited from exercising their right to protest on campus.
“I feel (the groups) played it dirty in a lot of ways,” Vega said. “They had security already set up, the police were already there and profiling us before it even happened it seemed YAF was laughing about the fact we weren’t as connected as they are.”
Fred Fico, a journalism professor and adviser to the MSU College Republicans, said the protesters interrupted their speaker mid-speech and later falsely acted like victims.
“The investigation should have never been launched,” Fico said. “The Office (for) Inclusion (and Intercultural Initiatives) exercised no judgment regarding the case they had. I’m glad they saw the light, but sorry they even needed to see the light.”
Vega said a fine line between free speech and hate speech was crossed during Simcox’s speech.
“In some ways, they were using a misconception of immigration to bully students whose families come from those backgrounds to just basically make us feel helpless (that) we couldn’t do more,” he said.
Ben Morlock, president of MSU College Republicans, said nothing Simcox said could be considered hate speech. Illegal immigration, he said, is an issue many Americans are concerned about.
“Mr. Simcox essentially presented a viewpoint that is very much accepted in the mainstream political culture,” Morlock said. “This isn’t a radical, fringe opinion.”
Terry Denbow, vice president for university relations, said the marketplace of ideas is open for all MSU students, regardless of topic.
“I think the findings certainly don’t declare the rhetoric and conduct as models of civil public discourse, but clearly the findings declare that levels did not rise to actionable harassment or discrimination,” Denbow said.
“Those levels are very high and they must be, especially on a campus.”
Austin Jackson, adviser to the Young Democratic Socialists, said the report focused too much on YAF’s right to free speech and not on underlying issues of racism at the speech.
Jackson, a James Madison College professor, said he felt he wasn’t allowed to attend the event because he was black.
“Other people were allowed to enter, others that appeared to be white,” he said. “I was told to leave the building. For an hour, hour and a half that proceeded, the event was racially cleansed of students.”
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Jackson said he wasn’t planning to protest and was barred from the building before the speech began or the protesters arrived.
“Those students, along with myself, had a right to attend the event,” he said.
