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LAWRENCE — A small group of students stood outside the steps of Rider University’s Bart Luedeke Center last night, displaying T-shirts and signs that read “Got Unity?” and “I Bleed Fairness,” a play on the school’s “I Bleed Cranberry” spirit shirts.

As Democratic strategist Donna Brazile arrived on her way to speak in the BLC Theater, she engaged the students.

“Anyone here a political science major?” she asked. When one student raised his hand she smiled. “I’ll debate you afterward.”

But those involved were not protesting to express their displeasure with Brazile so much as their frustration with the university’s handling of the eleventh annual Unity Days event.

Unity Days is a two-day, annual event at Rider aimed at bringing students, faculty and staff together to celebrate the diverse elements that make up the university. Celebrated yesterday and today, this year’s theme is “Responsible Citizenship At Home and Abroad,” according to Sean Ramsen, director for Rider’s editorial services.

Josh Hursa, a political science sophomore and chair of the Rider University College Republicans, said nine of the 11 Unity Days speakers the university has sponsored have had direct ties to the Democratic Party.

“They say the focus of these events is to bring together the school community, but the school is only inviting Democrats, and our concern is if they’re going to spend $20,000 a speaker, shouldn’t they also bring a conservative voice?” Hursa said. “It’s blatantly unfair and we’re trying to raise that awareness.”

University spokesman Dan Higgins said in a statement that the school is aware of the concerns raised by Hursa and the rest of the College Republicans, but that partisan politics play “absolutely no role in choosing a Unity Day speaker.”

“Each year, the Unity Day committee, which is made up of faculty, staff and students, chooses a keynote speaker who can address issues of diversity in a meaningful way, and we are proud to welcome Donna Brazile to speak on the subject of ‘Race, Gender and the American Presidential Race,’” Higgins said. “She is undoubtedly one of the nation’s foremost authorities of these topics, and we look forward to hearing her views.”

Hursa said her connection to the Democratic Party is inappropriate for such an event. However, he wanted to make it clear that it was not her political affiliation he found upsetting.

In fact, the school played host to the sister of vice presidential candidate Joe Biden earlier yesterday, and she rallied in front of the student center without protest from the College Republicans.

“We’re not protesting the fact that they are Democrats,” Hursa said. “The difference is the school is paying for it, and the majority of that funding comes from our student activity fees, and that’s a real problem to us. We want a good, balanced debate at Rider and we don’t think that’s happening.”

Brazile, chair of Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000, has been named by different publications as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in Washington, D.C.” and one of “America’s Most Influential Liberals.”

Last night she spoke of the need for the next president to take the divided country he will inherit and bring it together, and urged that those in the audience be proactive and do the same.

“These are serious times, and serious times call for serious leadership, and they call upon us to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” Brazile said. “We have to learn that we are going to need one another more than ever before.”

But she did acknowledge the difficulty in bridging gaps often caused by ideological differences.

“Unity is hard,” Brazile said. “Sitting down with people you disagree with is even harder.”

Brazile challenged the American people to come together amid all the issues on the table, in the middle of what she called an “economic tsunami,” and work together to create a form of government “that is truly functional.”

“Our solution will not come from the left or the right,” Brazile said. “It will come from the American people and our belief that our leaders are governing in such a way that puts our interests at the head of the table.”

Source: Times of Trenton