Really? Can't believe the University let this ride.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/08/0...atter.html

The University took no action either way.

The Student Gov't Association did. It was their Vice-President who said "#ForgetBlackLivesMatter . . ."

UH is one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the country.

The ethnicity of the student body is irrelevant. Those were not rough words, particularly in context of 5 policeman losing their lives. To disagree is fine - that is what a university should be about - robust debate is fine. UH administration should have stepped in to stop the SGA from administering a punishment over free speech.

I love this quote.

For her to say on her social media ‘forget black lives matter,’ it’s almost as if to say if all of us were to die tomorrow, she wouldn’t care,” BSU president Kadidja Kone told the Washington Post.


Isnt that EXACTLY the point the suspended individual was making when she goes on to post "ALL" lives matter.

Frankly--I have no issue with either phrase because both are true. What I think is ridiculous is seeing either as offensive. The girl being suspended for 50 days by her fellow students is beyond stupid. However, when you look at this situation, it should shed some light on the ultra-PC attitudes at universities today and give one food for thought when considering just how big a deal BYU's LGBT issues really would be for a group of Big12 university presidents.

(08-18-2016 08:38 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  The University took no action either way.

The Student Gov't Association did. It was their Vice-President who said "#ForgetBlackLivesMatter . . ."

UH is one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the country.

Well, that was my question, why did the university let this decision ride? Not protecting the freedom of speech of the students seems counter to the higher education experience.

(08-18-2016 08:48 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  I love this quote.

For her to say on her social media ‘forget black lives matter,’ it’s almost as if to say if all of us were to die tomorrow, she wouldn’t care,” BSU president Kadidja Kone told the Washington Post.


Isnt that EXACTLY the point the suspended individual was making when she posted "ALL" lives matter.

Frankly--I no issue with either phrase because both are true. What I think is ridiculous is seeing either as offensive.

I agree 100%, assuming "see/have" is the missing verb.

Quote:“#ForgetBlackLivesMatter; more like AllLivesMatter,”

Leaving off the phrase in italics would have made a huge difference. I understand the point, but also understand why that's offensive. However, being offensive is an integral part the maturing process of college students, isn't it?

(08-18-2016 08:57 PM)banker Wrote:  

(08-18-2016 08:38 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  The University took no action either way.

The Student Gov't Association did. It was their Vice-President who said "#ForgetBlackLivesMatter . . ."

UH is one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the country.

Well, that was my question, why did the university let this decision ride? Not protecting the freedom of speech of the students seems counter to the higher education experience.

The government did nothing to her and did not impair her ability to speak. Thats all that protected. "Free Speech" doesnt mean you are protected from the fall out from the general public if your words are unpopular. That said, her only punishment is not being able to participate in the student government association business for 50 days.

(08-18-2016 09:02 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  

(08-18-2016 08:48 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  I love this quote.

For her to say on her social media ‘forget black lives matter,’ it’s almost as if to say if all of us were to die tomorrow, she wouldn’t care,” BSU president Kadidja Kone told the Washington Post.


Isnt that EXACTLY the point the suspended individual was making when she posted "ALL" lives matter.

Frankly--I no issue with either phrase because both are true. What I think is ridiculous is seeing either as offensive.

I agree 100%, assuming "see/have" is the missing verb.

Quote:“#ForgetBlackLivesMatter; more like AllLivesMatter,”

Leaving off the phrase in italics would have made a huge difference. I understand the point, but also understand why that's offensive. However, being offensive is an integral part the maturing process of college students, isn't it?

I have no problem with either as long as its one complete coherent thought. That said, I agree it would have been better without the first part. There are third rails out there (race issues being one of them) and if you are in a public position---its best to just leave those third rails alone. She at least learned a lesson that will help her in the future.

Quote:Student Government Association President Shane Smith will drop his sanctions, including the 50-day suspension, for Vice President Rohini Sethi, Smith said in a joint statement with Sethi released Friday.

Instead, Sethi has agreed to take an unpaid “voluntary leave of absence” from her position until Aug. 22, the start of the fall semester. Sethi said she also plans to follow through on other previous sanctions, including attending cultural events throughout her term and participating in the Libra Project diversity workshop.

Link: To Full Story

SGA handled this situation poorly from top to bottom but after receiving push back from the student body, they relented and reversed course.

I am glad the administration stayed out of it and allowed SGA to learn from their mistakes.

I just wish Sethi would have stood up and said "I apologize for nothing."

(08-18-2016 08:45 PM)gostangs Wrote:  UH administration should have stepped in to stop the SGA from administering a punishment over free speech.

No, they really shouldn't have, and there's legal precedent for their inaction.

Quote:In its statement, the university characterizes the SGA as “a registered student organization subject to its own governance”—not a governmental actor, bound by the First Amendment. The university is correct to posit that student organizations are independent from the university itself, and, accordingly, speak for themselves. The Supreme Court has made clear that the expressive activity of student organizations “is not that of the University or its agents.” Bd. of Regents v. Southworth, 529 U.S. 217, 235 (2000).

Student organizational speech is not the university’s speech, and cannot be controlled or punished as such. Likewise, student organizations must be accorded the associational right to govern themselves as they see fit—a right that includes making decisions about leadership and sanctions for expressive activity the group dislikes.

https://www.thefire.org/following-allliv...overnment/

What a joke..freedom Is dead with this PC BS. Leaders that cannot tackle the real problems like to make these PC issues their cause.

Our future leaders in action here .... scary.

(08-18-2016 08:48 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

Quote:“#ForgetBlackLivesMatter; more like AllLivesMatter,”

Leaving off the phrase in italics would have made a huge difference. I understand the point, but also understand why that's offensive.

Right. As the Vice-President of the student body, you can't say:

"Screw the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, how about the Advancement of Non-Colored People too."

or

"Who cares about the United Negro College Fund, how about a college fund for non-negro people too."

on a college campus and not expect a sh!t storm.

The the SGA VP had just tweeted #AllLivesMatter, all would have been fine. It was the prelude that pissed everybody off.

Thanks to political correctness you cant answer this in the way you should. Or as my father would have said. Aww BULL S((&(*^^

Old news... It's been handled accordingly.

(08-18-2016 08:32 PM)banker Wrote:  Really? Can't believe the University let this ride.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/08/0...atter.html

Stupid SGA. Liberal CRUSHING freedom of speech. The USA is becoming the USSA (United Soviet States of America).
Then they force her to go to "brainwashing" classes. This has 1984 written all over it.

(08-18-2016 09:02 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(08-18-2016 08:57 PM)banker Wrote:  

(08-18-2016 08:38 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  The University took no action either way.

The Student Gov't Association did. It was their Vice-President who said "#ForgetBlackLivesMatter . . ."

UH is one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the country.

Well, that was my question, why did the university let this decision ride? Not protecting the freedom of speech of the students seems counter to the higher education experience.

The government did nothing to her and did not impair her ability to speak. Thats all that protected. "Free Speech" doesnt mean you are protected from the fall out from the general public if your words are unpopular. That said, her only punishment is not being able to participate in the student government association business for 50 days.

Her ONLY punishment? Why should there have been ANY punish,net at all. What she said should be accepted as readily as "black lives matter". It is the whole "that's our thing" mentality and you cannot share our feelings unless they are exactly our feelings.

People really don't understand Freedom of Speech. It isn't that difficult.

She was free to tweet her mind. She wasn't jailed for it or rounded up and interrogated. She freely spoke her mind. That said, Freedom of Speech doesn't mean you are free from the consequences. Cougar Red nailed it.

Call it "liberal" or "PC" or whatever, but I call it just being smart. UH is mighty diverse. More importantly, UH is proudly diverse. You are pretty stupid if you sit in some position of relative power and use social media publicly and tweet out something that half the population will find offensive. There are going to be consequences. She should consider herself lucky that she's in college. If this were real life and she tweeted that out as a sitting board member of some corporation, she'd be dumped by the road and lit on fire as people ran away from her flames.

she wasnt suspended from the school..just a 1.5 month suspension from her sga job handed down by her sga member

1) it was a paid job..anyone here can get fired from their job for making controversial statements that catch media

2) i love how everyone portrays it like, she tweeted only "all live matter" and the next day UH suspended her from the school... when the reality is she tweeted "forget black lives matter" aswell, it had about a full month of protests of the #removerohni movement that was trending all over houston and made local news..UH never did anything but said they dont have power in the SGA.. SGA did a ton of stuff to remove the pressure from townhalls to apologys, but no matter what they did the pressure kept growing and all the SGA members reputation were being dragged, that they were all racists

keep in mind they were calling for her to be removed completely.. SGA finally settled on a 1.5 month suspension, that can only ever be used once and can never used on anyone else....for all things considered that was a great middle ground

i find it funny and sad these kids were being called racists a month ago from the left wing, and today they are being called pathetic liberal socialist from the right wing..you cant win

i personally dont get the outrage on either side...i dont think the original protest should have happened but you're in a paid public position you have to watch what you say and this is for anyone. what you say will be watched and critiqued

(08-19-2016 04:50 PM)UHRedcat96 Wrote:  

(08-18-2016 08:32 PM)banker Wrote:  Really? Can't believe the University let this ride.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/08/0...atter.html

Stupid SGA. Liberal CRUSHING freedom of speech. The USA is becoming the USSA (United Soviet States of America).
Then they force her to go to "brainwashing" classes. This has 1984 written all over it.

Chalk it up to dumb college students doing dumb college things. If I was Sethi, I would quit the SGA and tell them where they could shove their punishment, because obviously those aren't the types of people I'd want to spend my free time with. The same kind of crap (much worse, actually) has happened at Yale, UCLA, Emory, and countless other elite colleges. When you bring together tens of thousands of kids from all walks of life, these incidents are bound to occur.

The fact that some wanted to smear the entire University and it's administration as a whole for not "doing something" about it (when they were correct to stay out of it) is what was pathetic.

It was settled and had fallen out of the news cycle until the Marshall fan brought it back up, but it seems like he didn't do his research, and didn't understand the facts and how they relate to the legal precedent, so joke is on him.

(08-18-2016 08:57 PM)banker Wrote:  

(08-18-2016 08:38 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  The University took no action either way.

The Student Gov't Association did. It was their Vice-President who said "#ForgetBlackLivesMatter . . ."

UH is one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the country.

Well, that was my question, why did the university let this decision ride? Not protecting the freedom of speech of the students seems counter to the higher education experience.

This is just my opinion, but I'm pretty sure that's not what freedom of speech means.