Okie Campaigns and Bay Buchanan@ a OU Football game in 2007
Administrators at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota unexpectedly blocked young conservatives on campus from hosting Bay Buchanan, a popular conservative commentator and former U.S. Treasurer under President Reagan.The speech was scheduled for Wednesday, October 22, but was abruptly canceled after college officials deemed Ms. Buchanan’s remarks on “Feminism and the 20008 Election” too politically charged, citing concerns about the school’s tax status. “Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, the College of St. Catherine has sought to avoid any appearance of partisanship during the 2008 political season,” said College spokesman Julie Michener.
That Ms. Michener can say that with a straight face is remarkable, considering the actions of her school’s program, Voter Education 2008. Program-sponsored seminars have highlighted student agitators protesting the GOP’s convention and featured a representative from the Joint Religious Legislative Task Force, which pushes for universal healthcare and minimum wage increases.
St. Catherine’s student handbook claims, “Students enjoy the collective assurance and protection of free inquiry and open exchange of facts, ideas and openness.” Except not really. St. Catherine is filtering out ideas it doesn’t want its students to hear.
In the last year, school officials sponsored vocal Hillary Clinton supporter Maya Angelou, NPR’s liberal correspondent Mara Liasson, and the anti-war radical Frank Kroncke. But Bay Buchanan? Well, she’s partisan.
The whole notion that a college or university’s tax status would be in jeopardy is also a canard, and St. Catherine’s administrators know it. The IRS in its Revenue Ruling 2007-41 Publication allows colleges and universities to host candidates or supporters of candidates without being in violation of the law. The violation occurs when such institutions prohibit a balance of ideas between parties and candidates, which means that by freezing out Bay Buchanan under the ruse of non-partisanship (while entertaining explicitly leftist viewpoints), St. Catherine is more likely to be defying IRS guidelines.
Moreover, St. Catherine boasts membership with the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities, in which other participating colleges have organized unequivocally political events. Macalester College, for instance, recently featured a rally with Michelle Obama that drew not only her husband’s supporters but prominent liberal politicians as well, including St. Paul’s Mayor and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. At St. Thomas College, Al Franken made a campaign stop in the school’s auditorium.
Even if St. Catherine’s officials are ignorant about IRS strictures (which is dubious) and the rallies taking place in their own backyard (doubly dubious), the fact that Barack Obama has addressed more than 170 colleges and universities in his quest for the presidency and not a single school has had its tax exempt status threatened should have tipped them off that no legal ramifications would ensue by hosting Ms. Buchanan–who’s neither a politician, nor on John McCain’s staff.
Students at St. Catherine requested to hear Bay Buchanan’s perspective on American feminism, and Young America’s Foundation along with the Minnesota Association of Scholars provided the funding to enable her appearance. St. Catherine merely had to provide a room for its students. Its failure to do so, aggravated by its flimsy excuse for the refusal, suggests a more sinister motive behind Bay Buchanan’s cancellation and an utter contempt for intellectual diversity.
Sound off at the St. Catherine administrators responsible for banning Bay Buchanan:
Andrea Lee, president. President@stkate.edu
Ann Redmond, coordinator, Centers of Excellence for Women. Aredmond@stkate.edu
