Grand Valley State University: Suppression of Affirmative Action Bake Sale
Students at GVSU were threatened with possible punishment for holding an affirmative action bake sale protest. Complaining students charged the College Republicans with violating a variety of GVSU regulations, most having to do with "discrimination." FIRE wrote GVSU president Mark Murray to protest the censorship. Unfortunately, under pressure from the administration, the College Republicans chose to eject their leadership and apologize for holding the event in the hope that the school would not issue any sanctions against the group.
Case Materials
"Bake Sale Battles Continue: FIRE Gains Victory at NEIU, Turns Sights on Grand Valley State University," FIRE Press Release, April 8, 2005: In a victory for free speech on campus, Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) has decided to allow the College Republicans to hold an affirmative action bake sale protest on campus with “no preconditions.” FIRE received written confirmation of the change on Wednesday afternoon, less than 36 hours after publicizing the university's unconstitutional threat to punish the group if they held the protest. At the same time that NEIU changed course, however, FIRE learned that Grand Valley State University in Michigan was proceeding with plans to try its College Republicans on “discrimination” charges related to their bake sale protest.
"Baking With Fire," John Leo, U.S. News and World Report, April 18, 2005: The enemies of campus bake sales are at it again, inflaming one another over the dire threat of cupcakes and cookies sold at different prices to whites, minorities, and women. The sales are political parody, of course, poking fun at affirmative action policies and trying to get a debate going. Campus orthodoxy holds that such policies are sacred and that any dissent, even in the form of satirical cookie prices, is illegitimate and deserving of suppression.
