Student Government Senate Supports Rejected Lesbian Arts and Science Dean Candidate

Not really a surprise from a body that has pretty much bought into the entire gay agenda, but the Marquette Student Senate tonight voted to support Jodi O’Brien by a vote of 16 in favor, and 6 opposed and 2 abstaining.

The resolution read:

Therefore: Let it be recommended that, in the future, Marquette University be more honest and transparent in its hiring rationale.

Furthermore: Let it be resolved that Marquette University Student Government abhors the University’s decision to rescind Dr. O’Brien’s offered contract.

Of particular interest in the press release from Student Government describing last night’s meeting is this:

Dr. L. Christopher Miller, vice president for student affairs, discussed issues regarding the release of Dr. Jodi O’Brien, former candidate for dean of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, with the MUSG senate on Thursday night. Dr. Miller encouraged senate members and all university students to attend a discussion forum to be held on Tuesday, May 11 at 5:30 p.m. in the AMU ballrooms.

“Pieces of scholarship were not reviewed when offered the position, then once reviewed were found to be in disagreement with Marquette values,” said Dr. Miller.

Dr. Miller also stressed that the release of Dr. O’Brien as a candidate was not due to discrimination: “It is not a part of who we are,” said Dr. Miller. “That is not the case.”

This statement from Miller is plausible, but consider how damning it is.

O’Brien was, according to the gay journal The Advocate, in the Dean search that took place in 2009. And then she made the short list for the 2010 search, interviewed and was extended an offer.

And all the while nobody bothered to read her scholar work.

(Or perhaps did read it and had no objection, and failed to honestly report what she had written.)

No matter how you cut it or slice it, it’s a fiasco.

Marquette Student Government: No Free Speech About Homosexuality

Last night, the Marquette University Student Senate passed a resolution condemning “prejudicial attacks” on gays and lesbians, claiming that “On Marquette’s campus LGBTQ issues in the past have been overlooked” and that “LGBTQ individuals have been subjected to intentional and unintentional prejudicial attacks . . . .”

This might seem bland enough, although actual harassment and discrimination against gays (and a long list of other groups) has long been against university rules. So why a redundant resolution?

A big problem comes with the phrase “prejudicial attack.” Actual physical attacks are against civil law, as well as university rules. Harassment has long been against university rules. The resolution mentions that “Some of these attacks take the form of derogatory jokes,” and that is the only form of “prejudicial attack” mentioned in the resolution.

Doubtless, telling derisive jokes about gays and lesbians is not nice, and could indeed be considered a form of harassment -- which again, is already outlawed. We have trouble seeing why homosexuals should have a special protection that (say) blonds, or Polish people or rednecks or people considered “too religious” don’t have.

Giving the Game Away

The true intent of the resolution was revealed when a conservative senator proposed the following amendment, to be added to the text:

Espousal of traditional Christian or specifically Catholic teaching on homosexuality shall not, if done respectfully and in the appropriate context, be considered a “prejudicial attack” or an expression of “prejudice.”

The amendment was voted down!

And it was voted down by a wide margin, with only four senators supporting it, and approximately 17 opposing it. After the amendment was defeated, the motion itself passed.

The intellectual level of the debate was revealed when one senator asked what “espousal” meant!

Given a chance to protect the right of Christian and specifically Catholic students to affirm Church teaching on homosexuality, the Student Senate, after considerable debate, refused to. It’s appalling that, on the campus of a supposed Catholic university, Catholic teaching about the sinfulness of homosexual acts is not supposed to be even expressed.

Not only is Church teaching not an officially enforced orthodoxy (which it shouldn’t be) but opposition to Church teaching is the official orthodoxy -- at least if Student Government (and the bureaucrats in Student Affairs, who monitor and ride herd on Student Government) gets its way.

Indeed, it largely already has. A source close to student government who spoke to us about the issue asked that his or her name not be used, because “we are probably the minority group on our beliefs . . . I’d rather not use my name.”

Student Government Legislator Speaks Against “Domestic Partner” Benefits, Vilified in Tribune Headline

Warning: Obscene language

Often the biases of media people show in their reporting. But they typically make at least an effort to conceal them.

But sometimes an unguarded comment, an e-mail not intended to be widely seen, or a technical glitch can show exactly what they really believe.

Thus when Marquette Tribune writer Eric Lombardi wrote a story about a meeting of Marquette University Student Government, he apparently didn’t like the fact that a Business Senator named Scott Seramur spoke against a measure to give gay and lesbian employees “domestic partner” benefits.

When Lombardi write the story he also wrote a headline that said “Scott Seramur proves how much of an official fucknut he really is.” A subhead said: “Heather’s roommate exclaims ‘See Marquette DOES hate gays.’”

Katie Wycklendt at GOP3.COM found it online, and archived a copy.

Lombardi obviously didn’t expect the headline and subhead to appear online. Normally, three different editors at the Tribune would have looked at the article, and doubtless caught the headline and subhead.

Tribune Editor in Chief Ryan Nilsson, reached for comment today, blamed the version that appeared online on a software glitch. The Tribune uses College Publisher, which should require that one box labeled “Completed” and another labeled “Approved” be checked before an article can appear online.

In this case, neither box was checked, but the article appeared online anyway.

By about 11:00 p.m. last night, shortly after the article appeared, Diana Sroka (editor of The Warrior) notified Tim Horneman (the Tribune editor who was on duty) about the headline, and Horneman took it down.

Nilsson said that the whole episode “an error” that showed “poor judgment on the part of the writer [Lombardi].” And further, “we regret the error.” Nilsson told Lombardi to send an apology to Seramur, and Nilsson himself tried to reach Seramur by phone to offer an apology.

This episode is a classic example of the intolerance and bigotry directed at people on college campuses who oppose the agenda of the gay lobby. We have blogged before about the fact that Jessica Cushion, President of the Gay/Straight Alliance, claimed that speakers opposed to gay marriage should not be allowed on the Marquette campus, since such advocacy is “hate speech.”

And here we have a Tribune reporter who uses an obscenity to describe a student legislator who won’t support the gay agenda, and accuses him of “hating gays.”

Sometimes, technical glitches reveal the ugly truth.