2008 Woodie Awards
Secular students call 'censorship'
JACQUELINE WAYMENT
Online Editor
Issue date: 10/30/08 Section: News
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Lloyd Lowe, president of the Boise State Secular Student Alliance, says his group was discriminated against when they were asked to remove a banner from their booth. The banner read, "Outgrown your imaginary friend?"
The BSSSA was invited to participate in the tailgate via an e-mail from Assistant Director for Student Activities Charlie Varland. Varland's e-mail asked the invited groups to prepare an activity for guests to participate in at their booth and to pass out information about their organization.
"The impression we got is that it was an opportunity to spread information about ourselves," Lowe said.
Lowe directed an e-mail to Associated Students of Boise State University Project Manager Ashlee Mendive asking, "What do we need to know?" Mendive responded with the date, and time to set up.
"I asked about any specific things I needed to know about when I was organizing our table and our booth there," Lowe said. "No one told me I wasn't allowed to act like an atheist."
The day of the event, Lowe set up his booth and left. Upon returning, he found his banner taped upside down. While trying to reposition it, he was approached by Brian MacDonald, director of New Student and Family Programs. MacDonald told him to speak with Director of Student Activities Kelly Stevens.
"This was an event for parents and families to come and just relax and enjoy family weekend, not engage in dialogue about religion and spirituality," MacDonald said. "Something that is a very sensitive topic to some people, we thought that the poster should be taken down."
Stevens informed Lowe that she had received complaints regarding the banner and that he must replace the banner or leave. He decided to replace the banner, and was allowed to remain at the event.
But Lowe and his group believe removing the poster was an act of discrimination.
ASBSU President Trevor Grigg agrees that the banner should not have been removed. Grigg's executive staff, along with the ASBSU Senate, co-sponsored the tailgate with a contribution of $1,800.
"I know what this particular banner or poster said, and I've seen it in the Quad before," Grigg said. "And they should have the right to show it if they want. It's freedom of speech and I don't see what the problem is."
MacDonald said he supports BSSSA and didn't feel that this particular situation is a matter of freedom of speech, but rather an issue of the goal of the event. His vision was for each organization to provide some kind of interactive activity for students and their families to engage in, which several of the participating student organizations did not do.
Mendive, who helped coordinate the event, acknowledges that the role the student organizations were to play at the tailgate wasn't conveyed very clearly.
"It's always a learning experience, especially this event," Mendive said. "I'm sure there could have been a lot more communication on, 'This is allowed, this isn't allowed,' and that way they would have known if their first flyer would have been inappropriate, but I didn't even consider that coming up."
Lowe and the BSSSA say they just want to make sure this type of "censorship and discrimination" doesn't happen again.
"We'd like to make sure that people are made aware that it's not appropriate, and that it really damages the communities," Lowe said.
Lowe was asked by Stevens to write a letter of appeal to Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Laliberte. Look for updates on this story to find out the results of that appeal.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 12
Aimee
posted 10/30/08 @ 10:29 AM MST
Umm...I am on arbiteronline.com, and I'd sure like to read the full article. Am I missing something?
Hilary
posted 10/30/08 @ 11:14 AM MST
As an institution of higher learning, Boise State must provide equal opportunities for all student organizations, even if their message may be controversial. (Continued…)
Daniel Alderman
posted 10/30/08 @ 12:27 PM MST
I had originally written a letter to the editor about this issue that was lost somewhere in the electronic morass between here and the editor's desk.
I placed the editorial on my blog @:
http://www. (Continued…)
Marissa Yeshe Palmo
posted 10/30/08 @ 12:37 PM MST
Way to go Secular Student Alliance! You have my support! It'd be funny if it wasn't so outraging! On the same front page of this past issue Kelly Stevens talks about dedicating herself to finding a place for students to fit in! This is so wrong and yet doesn't surprise me! It's only good unless someone complains. (Continued…)
RossB
Ross Butler
posted 10/30/08 @ 2:36 PM MST
I find it disturbing that an article about religion-inspired censorship at BSU was not printed in full. Worse, the entire article does not appear online either, despite the claim to the contrary at the end of the abbreviated, printed article. (Continued…)
Andrew
posted 10/30/08 @ 2:49 PM MST
According to MacDonald, this was NOT an event to " engage in dialogue about religion and spirituality." So why was the LDS booth allowed?
Jeff
posted 10/30/08 @ 2:53 PM MST
the question is was this and an event that they welcomed all student organization? and if so then yes they rights to freedom of speech were definitely violated and and if we want you could even go in equal protect act. (Continued…)
(this is)
posted 10/31/08 @ 2:39 AM MST
From the circumstance presented, BSSSA should have been able to participate at this event without interference.
---
On a side note,
I am an atheist and find BSSSA's banner which reads "Outgrown your imaginary friend?"
to be very juvenile, rude, and ineffective in producing a constructive environment for discussion. (Continued…)
Ross Butler
posted 10/31/08 @ 8:54 AM MST
Thank you, Arbiter, for fixing the online article! I'm happy to see that we can now read the whole thing online.
Regarding the anonymous comments by "(this is)," I wholeheartedly disagree about the banner being juvenile, rude, and ineffective. (Continued…)
Daniel Alderman
posted 10/31/08 @ 9:10 AM MST
I've been struggling with the censorship issue since the coupon incident. The administration saw that these things were happening, yet no actions have been made or apologies put forth. (Continued…)
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