The Triangle

Issue date: 2/25/05 Section: Ed-Op

Media Credit: The Triangle Tom Holzerman

Let's get one thing straight. I do not like Rick Santorum, and I disagree with him on many issues. He's not someone that I'd care to emulate, nor is he someone that I would enjoy listening to on a Tuesday morning.

However, that doesn't mean that he doesn't have the same free speech rights that I have, or that the Drexel Democrats do.

Yet, the Drexel Democrats protested Santorum's speech Feb. 22, claiming that he shouldn't have been allowed the opportunity to speak at Drexel because Drexel had other Republicans speak at the school and that having Santorum speak only "calls into question Drexel's own political bias."


So what is it, are we only allowed to invite speakers that don't impart a political bias? Or is the only bias they're allowed to have one of the left or the Democratic party? I seem to remember that Joseph Stiglitz speaking at the school, a man whose purpose in life at the time was to have John Kerry oust George Bush. And how about Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes giving a talk about his bill in Congress?

That doesn't even call into question liberal bastions on campus in the faculty and student organizations. Many of them are screaming liberals. Robert Zaller has been printed in this very paper with screeds decidedly to the left of the political spectrum. Diamante Machado is another example of vocal liberalism in the ranks of the professors.

In the student organizations, it's not as pronounced, but there was an outcry among the black student population when former Triangle columnist Leonardo Urbano wrote a commentary decrying Black History Month. Urbano at one point was a heat magnet for liberal voices on campus to come and attack.

So, Drexel is politically charged to the right? I hardly think so, Democrats. If anything, the rank and file in this University is decidedly liberal. There's nothing wrong with that at all from an objective point of view, and if you're one of the few campus conservatives, then it probably irks you.

As for the administration, I think we should all know by now that political motives do not drive them. Money does. President Papadakis did not invite Santorum to this campus because he's part of the vast right wing conspiracy. He's just trying to get more name recognition and of course funding to the University. It's the same thing when he got Stiglitz, Sarbanes, Tom Ridge and Arlen Specter to speak at the University.

Continued...

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