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TechnoratiThough the College Democrats are explicitly pro-life and pro-traditional marriage, they also support candidates whose views may clash with those of the fundamentalist Christian school. One such politician is President Barack Obama, who the group had been rallying behind during the presidential campaign.
In a statement passed along to LU officials last week, then-sponsor Childress offered a lengthy list of proposals on behalf of the club, including agreement to take no funds from the Student Government Association (SGA), to not endorse candidates as a group but only as individuals, and to continue to “explicitly state that they are pro-life out of personal conviction and respect for the University and what it stands for.”
“LUCD will pledge its support to a pro-life and pro-traditional form of marriage and would like conduct no less than one event each semester that promotes the message of one of these agendas,” she added, touching upon the two issues that LU officials claimed were the main reason behind the College Democrats’ change of status.
But more than the issues of abortion and marriage, Falwell said last week that the club had to find a new sponsor if it wanted to regain official recognition.
Falwell said the university decided that club sponsor Maria Childress could no longer work directly with students in light of her several misdemeanor convictions last month, including misdemeanor assault, disorderly conduct and trespassing.
“I don’t think we could have her serving as an adviser and working with them (the students) on a day-to-day basis,” Falwell said Friday, according to the Lychnburg News Advance. “I think it would raise concerns with parents if people with violent criminal convictions in the last year were working with students. So I don’t think we could do that.”
Childress, however, said that she feels the school was using her convictions last month to justify her removal as club sponsor and that the charges stemmed from a domestic dispute with her ex-father-in-law over visitation with her daughter.
“They had witnesses, I did not,” she told the News Advance. “It is what it is.”
Regardless, the club voted Friday to continue without Childress as it drew nearer to the conclusion of the sensationalized drama that unfolded over the past several weeks.
According to Darvish, “the College Democrat disagreement is basically over” with a proposed change in university policy that Falwell was set to announce over the past weekend.
If accepted, the new policy would put the College Democrats and the school’s College Republicans on equal footing as unofficial clubs recognized by the university.
The policy would also not require the clubs to have a sponsor, thus making the dismissal of Childress “a moot point now,” according to Falwell.
It was not immediately known when the earliest the new policy could be adopted and put into effect.
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