An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890
ALEX CONNOR/ IOWA STATE DAILY Director of Residency Dozmen Lee addresses the Senate on Wednesday, Feb. 20 about a contentious Snapchat video he posted Tuesday about his distaste for Speaker Cody Woodruff and Student Government as a whole.
Snapchat debacle leads to emergency Senate meeting BY EMILY.BERCH @iowastatedaily.com Director of Residency Dozmen Lee unleashed a string of criticisms of Student Government and Senate Speaker Cody Woodruff on his Snapchat story Tuesday, leading Woodruff to issue an ultimatum to President Julian Neely: “Julian needs to remove [Lee], and if Julian doesn’t, Senate will.” Woodruff has called an emergency Senate meeting, tentatively set for Saturday, in which the Senate will debate overturning an executive order which would remove Lee from his position. Neely has said he will not remove Lee because he sees no grounds to do so based on the 11-minute Snapchat video. Woodruff said he and Neely have not spoken about the event since he issued the ultimatum via email. “I think [removing Lee] is not right in the sense that he has the right to freedom of speech and being [able] to say whatever he wants to say, especially if it was not threatening or anything of that sort, and his message wasn’t,” Neely said. “He has the right to state his opinion, his thoughts, his feelings. That is his constitutional right.” Woodruff said he is disappointed in Neely’s lack of response. In the video, Lee accused Woodruff, who is running for Student Government president, of not caring about students and only seeking to further his own political ambitions, rather than representing Iowa State students. “That man does not stand for you,” Lee said in reference to Woodruff ’s campaign slogan, “I Stand for U.” Woodruff described Lee’s portrayal of Student Government as “wildly inaccurate and incredibly unfair,” and said watching the video felt like “watching a car crash when you are in the car.” In separate interviews, Woodruff and Lee both said their relationship has always been strained, each referencing their first one-on-one meeting at the start of the fall 2017 semester, where Lee called Woodruff a “snake.”
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02.21.2019 Vol. 219 No. 102
THURSDAY
COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES
A different kind of faith How an atheist and a nun forged an unlikely friendship
BY TALON.DELANEY @iowastatedaily.com Professor Anne Clifford spent the last 11 years teaching religion and ecology at Iowa State. She has given lectures on a multitude of topics, including racism and immigration. During her tenure, she also found an unlikely friend: The avowed atheist professor Hector Avalos. Clifford occupies the James A. Supple Chair of Catholic Studies at Iowa State. She’s had a life-long love for education and the sciences. She’s also a Catholic nun, one of the only members of her congregation in Iowa. Avalos, author of books like “The Bad Jesus” and “End of Biblical Studies,” has been described by different Christians as an evil, incredulous and corrupting force at Iowa State. The Des Moines area radio host J. Michael
“Mac” McKoy even wished for the professor to choke on his Thanksgiving dinner. “I think [Avalos] is the devil incarnate,” McKoy said on his program “Mac’s World” in November 2015. “I’m going to wish for bad things to happen to him.” Clifford doesn’t share McKoy’s perspective when it comes to her colleague. As a sister of Saint Joseph, she promised to “love the dear neighbour without distinction,” and she continues to uphold that principle. “[Avalos] is a consummate gentleman and a hardworking scholar,” Clifford said. “He’s always been respectful and kind to me. I’ve always tried to look for the good in people, and I find a lot of good in Hector Avalos.” Clifford even nominated Avalos for the
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Campus free speech makes way to Capitol BY DEVYN.LEESON @iowastatedaily.com The Iowa Legislature has brought back two bills that reignite a year-long debate over religious liberties and the free speech of student organizations at Regent universities. House File 316 and Senate Study Bill 1099 are identical bills moving through their respective chambers that would allow a student organization at Regent universities to enforce religious rules barring certain groups from taking leadership roles within its group. The Senate version of the bill has passed a subcommittee. Similar to a Senate bill from the last legislative session, these proposals came shortly after a development in the federal court case
between the University of Iowa and a conservative religious group. The federal judge sided with the group called Business Leaders in Christ over their barring of a gay member from a leadership position within the organization. The judge agreed with some of the claims the student group had while ruling with the university on others. The University of Iowa wanted to deregister the group after learning about their leadership selection process in 2017 as it went against a university policy which states “The University’s Human Rights Policy prohibits student organizations from restricting membership or access to leadership positions on any protected status such as race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” federal court documents claimed.
The judge’s ruling states the University of Iowa must allow the group to remain on campus, however, as the university did not consistently apply their rules against Business Leaders in Christ and other student organizations. The bill currently moving through the Senate and House would effectively prevent any institution from creating rules like the ones in the University of Iowa’s human rights policy. “A public institution of higher education shall not deny any benefit or privilege to a student organization based on the student organization’s requirement that the leaders of the student organization affirm or agree to the student organization’s beliefs or standards of conduct,” according to the bills.
The Board of Regents was opposed to the bill when it came up last year due to their belief they supported the first Amendment. Per a statement form the Board of Regents, this belief still exists. “Our public universities are places where all viewpoints should and can be heard and respected,” said Josh Lehman, senior communications director for the Board of Regents in a statement. “This has been a long-standing core principal of institutions of higher learning, and the Board of Regents fully supports the free expression of ideas on our campuses. The right to express differing views on any issue is paramount, and the Board and our universities do and will continue to support this right. We will continue to monitor the bill.”