The American Spectator

Campus Scenes

The Top 5 Campus Outrages of 2005

By Jim Eltringham on 1.24.06 @ 12:05AM

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Showing all the subtlety of Michael Corleone, administration officials told Weigold any official appeal would be rejected and encouraged him to resign his position as student body president. They gave him an administrative run-around and even mocked his beliefs as a born-again Christian, telling that the suspension would be a good time to do mission work.

The left dominates many campuses, but Mankato State crossed a line by allowing that to affect a student's academic career.

#1: Siena College boots student for posting Bible verses. Some colleges don't even bother trumping up academic charges to enforce a suspension and simply punish political speech directly.

Steven Bierfeldt wanted to educate students at Siena College in upstate New York about the Catholic Church's views on homosexual behavior. So he posted relevant Bible verses pertaining to the subject on flyers around campus.

One would think that at a Catholic college, Biblical discussions are fair game. The administration disagreed when the head of the gay and lesbian student group filed judicial charges against Bierfeldt for posting the flyers.

For the crime of posting Bible verses, the nominally Catholic Siena administration suspended Bierfeldt from campus until the offended student graduated or left (she was, at the time, a graduating senior).

The suspension negated all Bierfeldt's credits for the Spring 2005 semester. And, not surprisingly, Steve didn't get his tuition check for that semester back.

Steve has since transferred. Siena has yet to apologize.

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