OPINION & EDITORIAL
Unleash the neutrality
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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
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- In a bind (December 5, 2007)
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Related Stories:
- Halliburton deserves respect (September 20, 2007)
- Walking the walk (September 20, 2007)
- Free speech a doubled-edged sword (September 21, 2007)
- Halliburton not welcome on campus (September 19, 2007)
- Tread lightly, Berquam (September 24, 2007)
by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Thursday, October 11, 2007
In recent weeks, members of the Campus Antiwar Network at the University of Wisconsin have campaigned in various ways against the presence of Halliburton on campus. In their most notable demonstration, nearly 200 members protested Halliburton's presence at an engineering career fair, carrying signs and chanting rhymes about the company's ties to the Iraq war.
The most recent move in their crusade came Monday when CAN members met with Chancellor John Wiley to discuss the possibility of a student referendum to ban Halliburton from campus.
Very appropriately, Mr. Wiley told CAN members that while they are free to organize a campuswide referendum, it would carry no weight in determining whether or not a specific company will be allowed to recruit at UW.
The university is wise to offer its campus as a forum for students and potential employers to meet. Further, the university is not a partisan institution and, therefore, should not act in any way that would commit itself to one side of a political issue.
Indeed, the university has a responsibility to protect the interests of students wanting to pursue careers with Halliburton, just as it had the responsibility to protect the interests of those students wishing to protest Halliburton by marching from Bascom Hill to the engineering building.
Had Mr. Wiley agreed to give weight to a referendum that called for the banning of Halliburton from recruiting on campus, he would have potentially committed the university to an anti-Halliburton — and implicitly anti-war — stance, unfairly dismissing the interests of those with opposing beliefs.
This is not the first time Mr. Wiley has rightly maintained the university's neutrality in the face of pressures to commit UW to an anti-war stance. It was not long ago that UW student protests were not against companies benefiting from the war, but rather against the United States getting involved in Iraq at all. In 2003, during one such demonstration on Bascom Hill against the conflict in Iraq, students asked Mr. Wiley to comment on the university's stance regarding the impending war.
"I have no right to suggest publicly that everyone associated with this university has a single viewpoint," Mr. Wiley said in a statement that day. He refused to align the university with any political agenda and, instead, promised to "do everything necessary to guarantee that all who wish to express their views … have the freedom to do so."
Mr. Wiley was right to maintain the university's neutrality then, and we applaud his commitment to the same ideal now.
Anonymous (October 11, 2007 @ 1:03pm):
I think that the Administration needs to be more activist in their pursuit of neutrality.
- Germain E. Stemme
Anonymous (October 11, 2007 @ 9:29pm):
I don't know, but my heart says "maybe".
Anonymous (October 13, 2007 @ 12:54pm):
maybe these protesters need to start finding their own career path and not worry about others... Last I heard protester's salary doesnt compare to Halliburton's.
I'm sick of all the lefty's around... but i dont protest you.
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