The University of Wisconsin-Madison has said it won’t extend official recognition to the Knights of Columbus as a student group because it only allows Catholic men as members. The university says that recognition would violate a state law barring discrimination against students on the basis of religion. Critics say that’s a load of hogwash and in fact, this is exactly the kind of discrimination that the law is supposed to protect against. It’s also a clear violation of the First Amendment.
I wonder: Are Jewish students allowed to join the Muslim student group? Are whites allowed to join black student groups? Non-hispanics in Hispanic organizations? In other words, do we have a double standard that penalizes Catholics while leaving liberal groups protected? Considering this is UW-Madison, one of the most liberal colleges in the nation, and having seen what passes for tolerance and diversity and free speech on campus in the US, my guess would be Yes, we do.
Technorati Tags:anti-Catholic, Catholic, college, discrimination, Knights of Columbus, school, University of Wisconsin
All being said, Dom, you, as a Catholic gentleman YOU ARE ELIGIBLE to join the KofC.
I’ll have a Form 100 at Proud2BCatholic with your name on it!
Oh, yeah, the KofC is now a defendant in the “Under God” case in Sacremento.
From the Supreme Knight’s Report http://www.kofc.org/un/news/supreme/detail.cfm?id=128360 given Aug 1 in Orlando(if you really want to know what the KofC is about:
Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit challenging the words “under God,” arguing that they violated the First Amendment to our Constitution. Unfortunately, the court threw out the case on a technicality, and soon the atheist who filed the suit was back with another one. Previously, we had sought to influence the outcome from the outside, as what’s known as a “friend of the court.” But this time, with the help of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, we joined with six individual Knights of Columbus and their families in the Sacramento, California area and asked the court to allow us to join the case as defendants. The Judge agreed, and today, the case is actually entitled Roe v.Carey, and the first-named defendant is John Carey, a brother Knight.
The case will soon be argued before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and if and when it makes its way back to the Supreme Court, the Knights of Columbus will be inside the court’s chambers, actually arguing the case, rather than one of many outside groups filing briefs.
Boston College has a student group known as the AHANA Leadership Council which runs events for AHANA (non-white) students. There was a debate last year between the ALC, the GLC (gay leadership council), and The Observer, the conservative paper. At it, the topic of funding came up. The ALC claims they don’t get enough funding based on the percentage of students at BC that are AHANA. I don’t know the actual statistics, but essentially they said, “We’re 25% of the school and get 15% of the funding for student groups.” The Observer pointed out that it’s not like AHANA students aren’t part of other non-AHANA clubs such as College Dems or College Republicans. Therefore, ALC shouldn’t receive 25% of the funding, as that would over-fund the group. ALC called The Observer racist, just like they do to everyone who disagrees with them (even though it was a black girl who had made the comment). When a white freshman approached and wanted to join the ALC in order to celebrate cultural diversity, the student was told, “We’re AHANA, not WAHANA.” It reminded me of the hypocricy of being inclusive…
Since UW-Madison is a state school to begin with, it’s a much simpler issue. This is government-sponsored discrimination.
It’s not a big deal. The K of C has to call in the lawyers, and eventually this will get sorted out.
Dom, the story gets better.
UW-Mad administrators issued a press release stating that the problem had been resolved.
Only fly in that ointment was that the release is a FLAT OUT LIE—and the UW people were TOLD that by the KC contact before they sent out the release.
See: http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/comments_w_sidebars/8147/
UW-Madison is historically FAR more anti-Catholic than anti-“Christian.”