DePaul University: Shutdown of Affirmative Action Bake Sale Protest

Case Materials

• "Partial Victory for Free Speech at DePaul," FIRE Press Release, February 20, 2006: DePaul University has acquitted a conservative student group that was charged with harassment for holding an event that satirized affirmative action. Until FIRE intervened, DePaul administrators had been investigating the DePaul Conservative Alliance for holding an “affirmative action bake sale” protest.
• "Letter from DePaul Vice President for Student Affairs Cynthia Summers to Michael O'Shea, February 15, 2006," February 15, 2006
• "DePaul University Calls Affirmative Action Protest ‘Harassment’," FIRE Press Release, January 30, 2006: Earlier this month, DePaul University shut down an “affirmative action bake sale” protest, and is now investigating a student organizer for “harassment.” DePaul’s latest offense against liberty follows its 2005 dismissal of a professor for arguing with Palestinian students and its censorship of students’ peaceful protest of controversial professor Ward Churchill. This incident marks FIRE's third intervention at DePaul in less than a year.
• "Affirmative Action Bake Sale Protest and PETA Protest In Same Location," January 30, 2006
• "DePaul Anti-Discriminatory Harassment Policy," January 30, 2006
• "E-mail exchange between DePaul Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Cynthia Summers and Michael O'Shea," January 25, 2006
• "FIRE Letter to DePaul University President Dennis Holtschneider, January 23, 2006," January 23, 2006
• "E-mail from DePaul Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Cynthia Summers to Michael O'Shea, January 20, 2006," January 20, 2006
• "Conservative 'bake sale' causes controversy," Catherine Leyden, The DePaulia, January 20, 2006

Media Coverage

• "University presidents battle for honors in spinelessness," John Leo, Universal Press Syndicate, May 1, 2006: Judges agreed they had never seen two candidates as eminently qualified as Rawlins and Holtschneider. Calling the pair “the Ruth and Gehrig of modern Sheldonism,” the judges awarded the golden no-spine statuette to both. Congratulations, Sheldon laureates 2006.
• "Update: DePaul Censures Anti-Affirmative Action Group," Nathan Burchfiel, Cybercast News Service, February 24, 2006: A conservative student group has been acquitted of a charge that it violated DePaul University's anti-harassment policy when it conducted a protest against affirmative action, the school announced Monday. However, the DePaul Conservative Alliance (DCA) was found guilty of violating the Code of Student Responsibility and censured.
• "DePaul Investigates Mock Bake Sale for Possible 'Harassment'," Nathan Burchfiel, Cybercast News Service, February 14, 2006: Although Shibley declined to predict the outcome of the DePaul investigation, FIRE has successfully convinced four other universities to allow affirmative action bake sales to continue. Administrators at the College of William and Mary, the University of Colorado-Boulder, Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of California-Irvine all allowed the bake sales to continue after public pressure from FIRE.