Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate added its name to the list of sponsors for tomorrow's rally in support of U.S. troops that organizers say will be nonpartisan.
Bryan McKinney, director of "Rally for Our Troops," arrived late to last night's senate meeting from a Penn State for Life meeting and was unable to gain floor time in order to provide senators with a list of speakers at the event. The rally has been organized by College Republicans, Penn State Young Americans for Freedom, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and Chabad.
Had McKinney been able to gain the floor, he said the 16-4-4 vote over funding would have been unanimous.
Before voting on the legislation allocating $135 of the Senate's funds to the rally, some senators raised concerns that USG would be supporting an event with the potential to become politically biased. The legislation was authored by senators who are members of the College Republicans.
Town Sens. Sean Miller and Alicia Turner proposed the Senate wait until after the event takes place and then reimburse its organizers with $135 only if the speakers remained nonpartisan. Miller said his doubts stemmed from the fact that the Senate was not provided with the list of those speaking.
Miller and Turner made the suggestion based on their experience running a voter information presentation before the November elections, in which speakers were slanted in favor of Ed Rendell, they said.
McKinney, who worked for two years on George W. Bush's national campaign, said he is responsible for keeping the rally's content restricted to supporting U.S. troops.
And that support extends to President Bush, he added.
"It is impossible to support our troops without supporting the man in command of them," McKinney said.
In order to make sure the speakers will keep their support in the right place, McKinney said he had a dialogue with them on how to do so, and even gave some of them ideas on what they should say. The featured speakers will include people involved in the military, a local rabbi and a former member of the drug czar's office under the current administration.
Town Sen. Kelly Ross said there was a danger in USG supporting such a sensitive issue. "We shouldn't take this chance of having it be partisan or pro war or against war," Ross said.
However, others, such as West Halls Sen. Kristen Kofmehl, trusted the speakers would remain nonpartisan. She also said there was no way to measure if a speaker crossed the line between being partisan and nonpartisan.
Town Sen. Mike Gallo said the Senate has endorsed past events without raising any questions over their political orientation, and Kofmehl agreed. "We don't go through this much censorship with any other program," she said.
