Thumbnail image for elena pre-2.jpg(Credit to blogger Leslie Carbone for the title.)
On October 22, after going through all the proper channels and receiving all the proper authorizations, the Cornell University student group Cornell Coalition for Life posted a series of posters called the Elena Campaign in both the Art and Engineering quads, the latter display pictured left.
These are, quoting a Students for Life of America press release, “a series of light-hearted educational signs with pictures and text detailing the biological development of an unborn child.” Here’s the 1st in the series of 6, for example:
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(See the rest of the Elena Campaign series on page 2.)
The Art quad display was never touched, but within an hour after it was erected in the Engineering quad, according to the Cornell Daily Sun today…

In what some students claim was a 90-minute violation of their right to free speech, the Cornell Coalition for Life clashed with the College of Engineering administration on Wednesday morning when Dawn Warren, administrative assistant, removed the organization’s Elena Campaign signs from the Engineering Quad.
The CCFL is a non-partisan, pro-life advocacy group on campus….
Tristen Cramer ’09, former CCFL president, explained that the signs did not contain political statements, but rather “biological facts on fetal development,” including ultrasound images and text.
According to Cramer, the group put up the signs shortly before 8 a.m…. About an hour later, members of the group saw Warren removing the signs because she believed they were not approved by the University, despite the authorization notice that was posted on the first sign of the series. After members of the CCFL showed Warren the proper forms, she reportedly called the content of the signs “inappropriate” and removed them from the quad.

Thumbnail image for elena pre-1.jpgNot only did Warren remove the signs, she confiscated them. There they are pictured left in a College of Engineering office, where Warren refused to relinquish them until police forced her to. SFLA’s press statement continues the story:

Together, Dawn Warren and Cathy Dove, Associate Dean for Administration in the College of Engineering, attempted to prevent members of CCFL from retrieving the signs. Only when the Cornell Police were brought in did Warren and Dove relinquish the property. Even then, Dove tried to intimidate the students and requested that the signs not be put up again, referencing an “unwritten policy” among the College of Engineering to prevent “opinionated displays.”

According to accounts and Warren and Dove’s excessive behavior, the 2 were obviously engaged in pro-life viewpoint discrimination. But now Cornell administrators are attempting to say censorship wasn’t involved at all, only concern that the display wasn’t engineering related. From a statement by Cornell’s VP Tommy Bruce (click to enlarge):
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And from a statement by Cornell’s Dean of Engineering, Ken Fuchs:
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Objectively speaking, if unclear whether the display was approved or not, even if for some reason disbelieving the authorization notice, wouldn’t the prudent action have been to make phone calls rather than unearth and impound the signs until forced by police to return them? And if this was simply a huge innocent misunderstanding revolving totally around proper approvals, why did Fuchs add his last paragraph reminding all to be tolerant of opposing views? What did that have to do with anything?
Why can’t the administration just be honest about what happened?
[HT: LifeNews.com; photos courtesy of Freedom for Individual Rights in Education]
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