NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO AMEND SOUTHEAST POLICY

Southeast Missouri State University is under siege from the incessantly irrelevant "politically correct" crowd, whose mouthpieces want the institution to extend its non-discrimination policy to homosexual students.

Student groups already have come out in favor of amendments to the policy to prohibit discrimination not only on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or handicap, but also on the basis of "sexual orientation."

Southeast's Gay and Lesbian Student Association (GLSA) and the Student Government Presidential Council met last week with University President Kala Stroup to urge her support of the amendment.

Other student groups reportedly backing the amendment include the Student Activities Council, Student Government, Association of Black Collegians, Council for International Students, three Greek governing boards and the campus newspaper. The Faculty Senate also is considering endorsement of the change.

Joe Dunlap, GLSA's president, has said that although he's unaware of specific cases of discrimination against homosexuals at Southeast, the policy would be a "safeguard" to protect homosexual students against prejudice.

We doubt it. We also doubt whether providing a safeguard against prejudice is the real motivation for those who instigated the policy amendment.

The GLSA is the same crowd that erected a Christmas display at Cape County Park amid much reproach from a large section of the public. Apparently an isolated incident of a campus organization involving itself in civic fun, this paper never took issue with the display. But we wonder now, given the latest development, if there's not an attempt by GLSA and its defenders among Southeast faculty and students to garner attention and credibility as an organization that's something more than the insignificant group that it is, representing a tiny segment of the university's population.

Southeast institutionally has sufficiently accommodated the GLSA, diligently granting the organization's request for funding through student activity fees. This in spite of protests from a number of students, whose payment of the fees is mandatory.

It would seem Southeast would have more important issues to deal with than amending its non-discrimination policy to appease homosexuals who have yet to report instances of discrimination. If there were blatant cases of prejudice, perhaps the matter would be debatable. Without such evidence it's silly.

It's no surprise that the platform for "gay rights" in Cape Girardeau has apparently been erected on the campus of Southeast Missouri State. Universities nationwide insulated from the workaday, practical concerns of the public have for years been the torch bearers for a scornful mindset known as "political correctness." It seems education and preparation for the professional life of young men and women is not a sufficiently comprehensive role for institutions of higher learning, where indoctrination and amoral proselytizing too often take precedent over genuine education.

We urge the administration, faculty and students at Southeast to reject amendment of the institutions non-discrimination policy, which we'll assume until there are reports of widespread prejudice and intolerance already is working.

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