Posted: Thursday, February 8, 2007 12:00 am
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Boise State University is bringing in too many liberal speakers and should balance those viewpoints with other speakers, a coalition of conservative students says.
About 20 members of the Conservative Student Coalition protested at the university Wednesday. In a prepared statement, they said the predominance of left-leaning lecturers at Boise State amounts to ideological indoctrination.
Some of the speakers who have appeared at Boise State in the past four years include Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, feminist Gloria Steinem, former Democratic Sen. George McGovern and consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader.
"We're excited that we have a really vibrant guest speaker program here with prominent personalities like Al Gore and Jesse Jackson," said coalition member Brandon Stoker, 24. "But we're worried that only one perspective is being consistently provided."
Boise State spokesman Frank Zang said ideology is not a determining factor in choosing speakers. Rather, he said, speakers are chosen by different groups of students, faculty and staff.
Zang said students can lobby to those groups or student government for speakers of their choice. Every time student money is used to bring speakers to campus, students have a voice in the selection of that speaker, Zang said.
Members of the conservative group contend 12 speakers they identify as liberal have been at Boise State since spring 2004. In that time, three speakers they consider conservative appeared on campus.
They also claim that Boise State-affiliated groups have spent almost $300,000 for liberal speakers and no money on three conservative speakers since 2001.
The group has provided university administrators with a list of speakers they would like to hear, including actor Ben Stein, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, feminism critic Phyllis Schlafly and columnist Walter Williams.
Chrystal Shoup, a senior political science major and president of the university's College Democrats, said College Republicans and the conservative coalition have been told what they need to do to get the speakers they want on campus.
"They're just making a fuss over something they could be taking action on," Shoup said.
Coalition and College Republicans President Jonathan Sawmiller, a 22-year-old English writing major, said he believes that faculty and staff select students to be on the speaker committees who agree with their views.
"Its really more of a puppet representation, if you will," Sawmiller said.
For his part, Stoker, another coalition member, said he believes the prevalence of liberal speakers is inadvertent.
"We're just asking that they diversify and bring in some conservatives, some libertarians, some moderates," Stoker said.