College Republicans question cultural event rules

By Alison Angel

Winthrop College Republicans applied for cultural event status for an on-campus eventhosting Nikki Haley, S.C. gubernatorial candidate. The cultural event committee deniedtheir request citing the event as resembling too closely a political rally.

The committee also said the event would not allow for a “broad spectrum of viewpoints.” This isn’t the first time the group has had this type of difficulty, said Noel Rizzuti, vice president of the College Republicans.

The group also applied for and was denied cultural event credit for a video showing called “Privileged Planet.”

College Republicans were given a response taken from the cultural event guidelines the cultural event committee uses to review all requests. According to these guidelines, “Topics in potentially controversial subject areas, such as politics and/or religion, must allow for a discussion of a broad spectrum of viewpoints.”

Double standard
Rizzuti said she had trouble understanding this reasoning as it applied to their event. “You don’t have to show both sides of really any issue to get cultural event credit,” Rizzuti said. “There are lots of things that end up being very one-sided, and there are lots of events that are controversial.”

Rizzuti said one cultural event titled “When the Gays Move into Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” did not seem to be held to the same standards.

“It was about homosexuality, and they had two homosexual couples come and talk about how they fell in love,” she said. “Very controversial issue, but I don’t think they had anybody come in and talk about being opposed to homosexuality at all.”

Rizzuti also said she thinks nothing is more cultural than having someone in politics talk about current issues South Carolina is facing, especially because it gives students the opportunity to meet a future leader. She said the cultural event committee said that the College Republicans event too closely resembles a rally because the speaker is currently running for governor of South Carolina.

Political rallies do not constitute cultural event status, according to cultural event guidelines.

“I just felt like the cultural events committee, if this is its policy on everything, is really discouraging people to bring in political candidates and it’s discouraging students from getting involved,” Rizzuti said. “The bottom line is, students really aren’t going to come to a lot of things if they don’t get cultural event credit.”

Rizutti also said Haley is culturally different than other candidates because of her background, and this offers a very different perspective from what you would normally find with politicians.

“Another thing...is that Nikki Haley has Indian immigrant parents, and so that makes her very culturally different and unique from a lot of politicians,” Rizutti said. “That she comes from an Indian immigrant family and is now running for governor, I just thought she would have such a unique perspective.”

Guidelines are to blame
Mark Herring, dean of library services at Winthrop, serves as the advisor of the College Republicans. He said he thinks that although the guidelines disappoint, the committee itself shouldn’t be blamed.

“I should also hasten to point out that the committee...performs a thankless task,” Herring said. “If they approve everything, they’ll be criticized for not having discriminating taste. If they reject anything, they’ll be criticized for being picayune. It’s pretty much a lose-lose equation for them.”

Herring said that although both events the College Republicans offered were meant to offer new ways of looking at old issues, the rejection for the film “Privileged Planet” comes from the event not including a formal discussion.

“I am dumbfounded that the Haley event did not get cultural credit,” Herring said. “March is, after all, Women’s History Month, so what could be better than having a woman in politics talking about women in politics?”

He said the event meets all three guidelines the committee follows and bases all decisions on.

The first two guidelines, on the cultural events site on Winthrop’s Web page, state that a topic must have a speaker with credentials and expertise in the subject area, as well as a subject of importance or uniqueness.

The third calls for controversial issues to include a broad number of viewpoints. “Let’s agree that no active politician goes anywhere without making that event a campaign appearance,” Herring said, “but we should want students to hear what politicians have to say beyond their stump speeches because we give politicians so much power over our lives. I find the guidelines distinctly odd and intellectually fastidious.”

Herring said he’d like to see cultural event credit become less prescriptive, without making organizations jump through so many hoops to get it.

He said he sees politicians as a way to gather more information and to be better informed when it comes to voting.

“Why require a formal discussion about a film?” Herring said. “I’m sure we’re not worried students might think for themselves and arrive at conclusions we don’t want, or even embrace ones we in the academy might find personally objectionable.”

Committee does not give adequate information
The College Republicans are not alone in their experience. Typically, all groups who are denied cultural event credit are sent the same rejection e-mail notification. Nichole Scaglione, coordinator for wellness services, said the cultural event committee does not offer case-specific explanations for rejection.

“That [not getting an explanation] has been my experience, but I am not on the committee, so I’m not sure what their protocol is,” Scaglione said. “I know that everyone else I have heard from has always received the same rejection e-mail with no actual explanation.”

Janet Gray, chair of the cultural event committee, told The Johnsonian she could not comment on specific committee decisions such as the denial of the College Republicans’ event.