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In his Bruce's Blog, Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard on the recent disinvitation of Liberty University from the campus Law School Information Fair, scheduled to take place from noon to 4 p.m. today in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room on campus.

In his post, titled "Why did you decide to ban Liberty University's School of Law from participating in Western's Law School Information Fair?," Shepard writes about free speech and Western's policy prohibiting illegal discrimination in operation of all university programs and activities.

The post begins:

Short answer would be: "I did not, you who are the university did so decide – in the policies previously established."

What do I mean by that? Really just this: my job is never to impose my own preferences on decisions about such matters. Nor is my job to be swayed by however many emails, petitions, letters, and calls I may get on a pending decision.

My job as Western's president, serving you, is to make sure we are very clear on what we, together, have established as the university's policies and then to adhere to them.

Here, the decision was straightforward: ; Liberty University's School of Law states explicitly that they discriminate in employment and admissions on the basis of homosexual conduct; and we formed the view that including Liberty would cause Western to violate its own policies.

Looks pretty straightforward. And, it is as far as following university policy is concerned.

But, we also must follow the law and, here, the questions are more complicated. Western's policy is backed by provisions and directions set in Washington law and an Executive Order. Liberty University's right to discrimination is, just as clearly, protected in case law. When those come into conflict, what should prevail?
We cannot wait on the courts to settle a matter we must decide upon today. For Western, we decided that our university policies take precedence.

So, there is the background. I wanted you to have that. But, I use these blogs for other purposes: to explore questions that may take us – me included – outside of comfort zones. And, to get personal, as well – to try to share a bit about me and my thinking. It's no better than anybody else's thinking, but the title I carry can create a gulf and you deserve to be able to get behind the title and know me at other than formal levels. So, in the spirit of "Bruce's Blog," here goes.

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