Werner takes heat for fraternity banner |
Mike Terry |
The Dialogue with the Chancellor took an unexpected turn when two students criticized David Werner's moral leadership and his stance on a banner hanging in the Goshen Lounge of the Morris University Center. The controversial banner, put out by the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, features a large Playboy bunny logo, a display the two students viewed as pornography and a poor use of student dollars. "We need a voice of leadership on campus that says what will be tolerated," one of the students said Monday. Though Werner was unaware if whether the fraternity's use of the logo could be a possible copyright infringement of the Playboy trademark, he believed that forcing the banner to be taken down would be a violation of their rights. "That's not what this country is about and that's not what this university is about," Werner said. "You need to be able to listen to people that disagree with you." The debate continued to heat up when Timothy Vincent, a member of the fraternity who was walking by, overheard part of the discussion and approached the microphone to defend the display. Order was eventually restored, and the angered students were promised a meeting later in the day with Student Body President Phil Gersman. "Pornography is legal," Gersman said in response to the issue. "You might not like it, but it's legal." Werner also answered many questions from students and took suggestions for possible construction projects for SIUE in the future such as greek housing and additional apartments. "We are looking for what that next step should be," he said. "We want to keep it as broad as possible." Other topics brought up included parking, improvements to the online resources on campus, recruitment and admission standards, and benefits of SIUE's recent annexation into the city of Edwardsville. | |