The university MUST be held accountable...CONTACT THE ADMINISTRATION...via Kevin McCullough...and spread the word.

and of course the university officals have no political agenda.

Don't be ridiculous. Of course liberals support the troops. Just not when that means actually supporting the troops.

I'm going be a little contrary here. If the university OWNS the vehicle, then they get to decide whether their employees can vandalize it by putting stickers on it.

They may well be, and probably are, biased. But, unless they are allowing or encouraging liberal vandalism, then I don't have a complaint.

What I saw had it that the offending "vandalism" was a magnet, not a sticker. That's a slightly different matter.

Jon, they are magnetic "stickers" that go on and come off with no harm done.

A public employee's job cannot be conditioned on surrendering his constitutional rights. If a matter is of "public concern", then the employee has a right to speak about it, regardless of who may be offended. There is no constitutional right to not be offended. The University policy is clearly contrary to the Constitution.

I've been reading the links since I posted. Jennifer and McGehee, you're right they are magnets, not stickers. And I agree that I find this policy odious and would agree that the official(s) who ordered it are jackasses, but I think my point still stands.

The vehicle in question belongs to the university. They didn't ban anything on the private cars of employees. The employees constitutional rights are not in question. Their employees are still free to express themselves however they want on their own time and on their own vehicles. But, the university and its officials are well within their rights to decide that stickers or magnets or whatever may not be applied to the university's vehicles.

I would say that the University has approached this in the wrong way. For example, something along the lines of:

There should be no stickers, magnets or whatever on company vehicles other than the ones approved by the University.

However, it still sickens me.

I've gotta agree with Jon and say that they're state owned and shouldn't have any magnets, bumper stickers or personal items on them. Of course I agree that the school wouldn't have said shit if they were 'Redefeat bush' stickers.

Well, what I think they said was basically, "no stickers/magnets/etc. at all". I think they're being ridiculous, but it is unbiased. And they may well change their mind with all the complaints rolling in.

They won't change their minds. U of O and Eugene are radically leftist areas.

Jon, if the University said you couldn't post a Bible verse on your desk, or a "Support the Troops" sign in your office, wouldn't that be a problem? What if the University said he couldn't wear a "Support the Troops" t-shirt to work?

Legally or not, it's stupid. Is U of O really so worried about offending someone that they require people to remove these magnets? They should buy magnets for all of the campus cars and display them on their own initiative! How is "Support the Troops" an offensive sentiment? It's only offensive in places like Eugene, where it's just taken as a given that Bush=Hitler and war is always bad, no matter who fights it for what reason.

Jennifer, I think their policy is a little ridiculous as well. My only point was that I think it is legal. And legally, I think they could say "no personal items on your desk" or "no shirts with words on them". I don't think there's anything that can be done LEGALLY. I think the only recourse here is POLITICAL, which is exactly what seems to be happening here. Lots of people talking about it and complaining. Articles in the newspaper. A big stink raised about it. I think that's exactly the right response to these pinheads.

Jack posted while I was typing, and he's probably right. They might not have complained about a leftist slogan. But, at least they didn't say "no right wing magnets", they just said "no magnets at all", which is at least neutral. I think I'm with Jack here, why are they putting personal items on university vehicles?

I am curious as to who was so thin skinned that they found a "support our troops" magnet offensive.

See that is where I find the disconnect-supporting our troops isn't and shouldn't be political, but somehow somebody decided they were offended? Give me a break.

If you type it, they will come.

FUCKING HELL I CANNOT BELEIVE THIS! Is there any academics left out there that aren't completely taken over by the facist/communist liberal agenda?? Surely these people can be stopped somehow from destorying any moral our boys have left. They are TRAITORS and probably guilty of TREASON for this...and we all know the sentence for that!

I sweat, if I was a bit younger I''d be taking a baseball bat to their knees. Fucknig Liberals.

Apparently, the extreme left believes that the "support our troups" message is designed to equate their "opposing the war" with "opposing the troups", "being unpatriotic", and "exposing them as the nasty anti-american pieces of crap that they are", i.e. it is all basically an effort to get them to shut up. Thus, they find "supporting the troups" very controversial.

I gotta side with the majority here. Their vehicle, their rules. If they were telling him to keep it off his own vehicle, that'd be one thing. But it's not HIS truck -- he's using it as part of his job duties. He has no ownership rights or responsibilities towards it, and if they say "no stickers/decals/magnets/fuzzy dice," that's their right.

J.

I'm tending to agree as well that it is their vehicle. As long as they removed any sticker or decoration at all (excepting of course university ones, because it is their vehicle), I don't see a problem with this policy.

I don't agree with their statements that it is a "political speech". Supporting the troops is only political because the university officials think so, and their wrong for it, but they can have above-mentioned policy without mentioning politics at all.

It's a redundant statement, but who in the hell has such a vapid life that they would be offended by such a symbol, then knowing that they could show their trendy progressive activism by blowing the whistle on a guy who probably makes ~19K per year and is just trying to show is appreciation for his freedoms.

That shithead liberal suckhole! I'm with Rob Hack"knee" - somebody needs their ass kicked.

The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking that the University probably didn't even have to mention the word "political".

Because of this, I'm going on a liberal blog tonight and gonna tear some liberal poser a new one just for the hell of it. That might make me feel better.

I don't think there is any doubt that what the University is doing is legal. That isn't the issue. Universities allow private expressions on cubicle walls, hallways, email footers, etc. ALL THE TIME. The real issue is selectively restricting private speech on public property in a manner that show obvious bias against a political view. If this were an isolated incident, the bearded Leninites get the benefit of the doubt. But we know better by now.

"A Public employee's job cannot be conditioned on surrendering his constitutional rights. If a matter is of "public concern", then the employee has a right to speak about it, regardless of who may be offended. There is no constitutional right to not be offended. The University policy is clearly contrary to the Constitution."

Excuse me, Jennifer? Noone is being sacrificed THEIR constitutional rights. The employees can proclaim their beliefs all they want, as long as it does not conflict with the representation of the school. The means of displaying the magnet here involves state property, so the issue of personal rights ends right there. The man can express his views all he wants as long it is on his own accountability and thats what the first amendment preserves. But when you are displaying such thoughts on the property of your employer than it goes past your first amendment and becomes the jurisdiction of the employer in regards of what can and cannot be displayed.

"But when you are displaying such thoughts on the property of your employer than it goes past your first amendment and becomes the jurisdiction of the employer in regards of what can and cannot be displayed."

So if the University decided that anti-war magnets were just fine, but support the troops magents aren't allowed, is that okay with you?

And this is the real University world -- anti-Bush and anti-War propaganda is displayed all over public University property. The issue here is the suppression of private expression on public property with a deliberate bias against one point of view. Isn't it?

Neither of those are fine. I think it is well stated in their policy... that they will not take either side. To state so is just presuming based on your own pre decided bias and that is just unfair on your part.

The university officials are the dumbasses!!

Cindy

At first I was outraged when I saw this story. I emailed the Univ President and he actually wrote me back (i was quite surprised). Although I still disagree and personally would not make anyone take down yellow ribbons anywhere, his response did make sense:

“Government vehicles in this state have never been allowed to exhibit items of personal _expression. State employees are free to use their personal vehicles for statements of all types on university campuses and elsewhere. This distinction between a state vehicle and a personal vehicle is very important.”

Just out of curiosity, I emailed him back to ask if they would make an employee take a U of O athletic sticker off a truck since it's "personal expression". I'll keep you posted if he responds.

Liberals support the troops, just not American troops.

"I think it is well stated in their policy... that they will not take either side."

Those of us who actually work in biased University settings realize there is a difference between stated fairness policies and the actual implementation of those policies. A Leninite complained about the magnets and so all hell breaks loose. If the tables were turned, the University wouldn't give a rat's ass about their policy. This is the way it works, boyz and girlz.

Now the question to ask: is the University of Oregon now deciding to enforce their policy that bans political signs in the office, the use of campus resources to distribute political propaganda, etc. We know the answer .... only if the wrong view is being expressed.

Do the school employees wear casual clothes to work?
IF so, can he wear a "liberals eat the peanuts out of my shit" t-shirt?
Will this be construed to be the official school policy (since he's an employee)?

Another tempest in a teapot with bloggers berating the U of O president like Roseanna Rosannadanna blathering on. Except one rarely hears back "Never Mind..."

U of O Vehicle. They can do what they want -- though I like the question about the atheletic stickers.

I'd like to see a rash of "Don't Tread on Me" rattlesnake yellow ribbon magnets on PERSONAL vehicles, or maybe a bevvy of U of O vehicles "vandalized" with these magnets as a political statement. That would be a lot more interesting and effective than most the rants here.

[gadsdsenandculpepper.com if I remember correctly]

None of this is right besides how many of you are right now in the field supporting any of the troops?

I support my fiance who is in the army and those magnets are bullshit because some person in this country (or in another) is making a shit load of money off of them.

And besides it's your own wgo bursting through when you have one of those. Lets see who is more patriotic than the next cad.

Everyone is a hypocrite no one is right get it over with.

Hell I might look back on this in a few weeks and go "Man that was dumb" but who cares? No one. None of you.

Not the guy in the white house.

Not the person who rings you up at Wal-Mart.

All that matters is money right?RIGHT?

>enter whatever you want here

Open your eyes find your souls...go on from there.