'White' scholarship here to stay
The College Republicans at Roger Williams University still fear for their charter, but say they will push on to create an endowment.
01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 29, 2004
BRISTOL -- Despite a Student Senate decision at
Roger Williams University not to revoke the College Republicans' charter last
week, the Republicans are still concerned that they could face sanctions over
their whites-only scholarship. The Student Senate considered a bill last week that would have terminated the
charter because the group allegedly violated an antidiscrimination policy that
requires campus clubs and organizations to treat all students equally without
regard to race, gender or sexual orientation. The bill was dropped Wednesday, after the Rhode Island Affiliate of the
American Civil Liberties Union and its chapter at Roger Williams' Ralph R.
Papitto School of Law stepped in to defend the College Republicans. However, Jason Mattera, the president of the College Republicans and a
student senator, said his group is still under threat. "There are people in the Student Senate that will do anything to abolish us
as a club," he said Friday. The bill, which was first proposed Monday, drew a distinct line between
offering the scholarship and awarding it. On Feb. 17, before the scholarship was awarded, a subcommittee of the Senate
ruled that the scholarship offer did not violate the university's Student
Equality Act because it was a political statement protected as a form of free
speech. However, the bill proposed afterward held that by awarding the scholarship on
Feb. 18, the College Republicans took a political action that was not protected
and did violate the act. "The College Republicans' 'White Scholarship' existed as a political
statement until the point the scholarship was distributed," said the bill,
introduced by Student Senate President Erin Bedell and Sen. Wynter Lavier.
"Political actions that are discriminatory are not protected. . . ." The proposed bill drew a sharp response from the College Republicans, who
have maintained that the scholarship was meant as a parody of minority
scholarships, and from the ACLU. In a letter dated Thursday, Steven Brown, the executive director of the
ACLU's Rhode Island affiliate, and Bridget Longridge, founder of the ACLU
chapter at the Roger Williams law school, repeated their earlier support for the
right of the college group to free speech. The letter said the Senate's efforts
are "inimical to the critical goal of any university in promoting wide-ranging,
robust and uninhibited free speech." "As members of the [College Republicans] have said from the beginning, their
offer of a whites-only scholarship was an attempt to make a statement about
affirmative action," they wrote. "Certainly one can question whether this
controversial approach is the best way to generate debate on this subject, but
ultimately that is for the speaker -- the College Republicans -- and not others
to decide." The letter was addressed to Bedell, the other members of the Student Senate
and Roger Williams University President Roy J. Nirschel. Bedell couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Her bill alleged that
Roger Williams could lose federal money because the College Republicans'
scholarship was discriminatory. The scholarship has elicited sharply divided responses since it was offered
three weeks ago. Students belonging to Roger Williams' Multicultural Student Union have
protested it. The Republican National Committee and the state GOP renounced the
College Republicans. And the recipient of the $250 scholarship chose to donate
the money to a fund for victims of last year's fire at The Station nightclub in
West Warwick. However, Mattera says he has received more than 1,000 e-mails over the last
two weeks, most pledging support. Though the scholarship was dismissed by many students as a publicity stunt,
the College Republicans say it was created to parody scholarships reserved for
minority applicants and to challenge perceptions about affirmative action. A group of Rhode Island College students took the Republicans up on their
challenge and invited them to debate in public the pros and cons of race-based
initiatives. Mattera said last week that his group would accept the invitation. No date
has been set for the debate. Meanwhile, pledges to the College Republicans' scholarship fund continue to
pour in. Mattera has said the group has received pledges totaling more than $4,000 to
set up an endowment fund for the scholarship. Last week, it set up an online
account to accept donations.
State Republican Chairwoman Patricia Morgan sees "racist overtones" in a whites-only scholarship sponsored by the College Republicans of Roger Williams University.
01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, February 17, 2004
BRISTOL -- A whites-only scholarship
being offered by the College Republicans at Roger Williams University is
"disturbing," says the state's Republican chairwoman. "It does not move us forward in a reasonable debate over the issues,"
Patricia Morgan said yesterday. She emphasized that the student group is not sponsored or supported by the
state Republican Party. Morgan responded after learning that the College Republicans are offering a
scholarship -- which now stands at $250 -- that is only open to applicants who
are white. The group created the scholarship as a statement against affirmative
action. It is not endorsed by the university administration. Though she did acknowledge that the debate over affirmative action is valid,
she said the student group's tactics have "racist overtones." "We have zero tolerance for racists in the Republican Party," she said. "I'm
really appalled by the way they brought this up." The College Republicans have been advertising the scholarship on their Web
site over the past two weeks. They also took out an ad last week in the Hawk's
Herald, the university's student newspaper. The application for the scholarship asks for an essay explaining "why you are
proud of your white heritage." The scholarship recipient will be announced tomorrow night by Reginald Jones,
a critic of affirmative action who is giving a lecture entitled, "How the
civil-rights movement destroyed the black community." The scholarship was originally for $50 but was increased after two donors
each gave the College Republicans $100, said Jason Mattera, the group's
president. He said yesterday he had received "at least 10" more offers of money for the
scholarship. "This really blew up," he said. Also yesterday, Roger Williams University's College Democrats responded to
the scholarship offer. "The College Democrats are shocked at the sheer naked hypocrisy of Jason
Mattera and his extremist organization," said William Keefe Sandler, the acting
president of the College Democrats. "If he truly believes in the message of his
publicity stunt, I ask that he return the thousands of dollars he has received
in his ethnic scholarship." Mattera, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was awarded a $5,000 scholarship
from the Hispanic College Fund. He also receives an $8,000 annual scholarship
from Roger Williams. He has said he received the money because of his academic achievement and not
his ethnicity. Sandler said the College Republicans' initiative has offended other students
at the university. "It sullies the reputation of our school," he said.