The News Record - News
Issue: 10/3/05
Bennett cancels visit amid tension
By Michael Rovito
Radio talk show host and former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett on Sunday canceled his campus appearance amid controversy over comments he made on his radio show last week.
The event, which the University of Cincinnati College Democrats planned to protest, was to take place Tuesday evening.
Bennett, who served under President Ronald Regan, said last week on Bill Bennett's Morning in America, that "you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down."
Since the show, Bennett has received national media attention after high-level Democrats spoke in outrage on the comments.
In a letter obtained by The News Record, Bennett said the controversy over his remarks would have clouded the message of his planned speech, "Politics, War and Culture."
"The current controversy that has arisen around comments I made on my radio show, based on a willful distortion of what I said, will take away from the serious discussion I want to engage in with the student and community at the University of Cincinnati," Bennett said in his letter.
Since his comment Bennett has denied that he is a racist, saying on ABC News that he was speaking in regard to a hypothesis that falling crime rates are related to increased abortion rates.
Kevin Welch, chairman of the College Republicans, said they will be working with the university of reschedule the event.
"We're disappointed that we had to cancel it, but we remain committed to rescheduling," Welch said.
Erich Sreckfuss, president of the College Democrats, said the group will still hold a protest on whichever day Bennett comes to campus. Streckfuss also said the way the event was canceled disappointed his group.
"We're glad that Bennett will not have a forum at the University of Cincinnati," Streckfuss said. "However, it's unfortunate that he cancelled on the College Republicans and they didn't cancel on their own."
Streckfuss said Friday that Bennett's comments qualify him as someone whose ideas are counter to the mission of UC.
"We definitely feel that his comments do not reflect the attitudes of the University of Cincinnati and have no place here," he said
One major element of the issue between the UC Democrats and Bennett's appearance was the university's promotion of the event on its Web site, which links to the College Republican's site, Streckfuss said.
The university, however, is not taking any position.
"Just because we bring someone in who's controversial, doesn't mean we support his views," said UC Spokesman Greg Hand.
Hand went on to say that students tend to like controversial speakers who come to campus because they can disagree with them.
The College Republicans, according to Chairman Kevin Welch, also support free speech but are seeing the issue differently from those who have been outraged by Bennett.
"They're welcome to exercise their first amendment right to free speech," Welch said, referring to the Democrats protest. "But we're welcome to
too."
Bennett's visit was being funded by a parent of a UC student who wished to remain anonymous.
The parent was fronting money because of a concern over the type of speaker typically brought to UC.
Because of the abundance of left wing speakers invited to campus and a severe lack of conservative Republicans, the parent is giving their own personal money to back the event.
http://www.newsrecord.org/media/paper693/news/2005/10/03/News/Bennett.Cancels.Visit.Amid.Tension-1006557.shtml
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