TEXAS UNIVERSITY SHUTS DOWN BAKE SALE
Southern
Methodist University shut down a
bake sale Wednesday in which cookies were offered for sale at different
prices, depending on the buyer's race or gender.
The sale
was organized by the Young Conservatives of Texas, who said it was
intended as a protest of affirmative action.
A sign
said white males had to pay $1 for a cookie. The price was 75 cents for
white women, 50 cents for Hispanics and 25 cents for blacks.
Members
of the conservative group said they meant no offense and were only
trying to protest the use of race or gender as a factor in college
admissions.
Similar
sales have been held by College Republican chapters at colleges in at
least five other states since February.
A black
student filed a complaint with SMU, saying the sale was offensive. SMU
officials said they halted the event after 45 minutes because it
created a potentially unsafe situation.
"This
was not an issue about free speech," Tim Moore, director of the SMU
student center, said in a story for Thursday's edition of The
Dallas Morning News. "It was really an issue where we had a hostile
environment being created."
The sale
drew a crowd outside the student center and several students engaged in
a shouting match, Moore said.
David C.
Rushing, 23, a law student and chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas
at SMU and for the state, said the event didn't get out of hand. At
most, a dozen students gathered around the table of cookies and Rice
Krispies treats, he said.
"We
copied what's been done at multiple campuses around the country to
illustrate our opinion of affirmative action and how we think it's
unfair," he said.
Matt
Houston, a 19-year-old sophomore,
called the
group's
price list offensive. "My reaction
was disgust because of the ignorance of some SMU students," said
Houston, who is black. "They were arguing that affirmative action was
solely based on race. It's not based on race. It's based on bringing a
diverse community to a certain organization."
The
group sold three cookies during its protest, raising $1.50.
In June,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled universities could use race as a factor in
admissions under limited conditions. In Texas,
universities had been banned from using race as a factor under a 1996
decision by a lower court.
Associated Press, September 24, 2003.
Newsletter, January 2004 -Text