Students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison were not pleased to learn that their football team would be staying in a Trump hotel for the Orange Bowl.
As earlier reported by the Washington Examiner, an organization called the Student Coalition for Progress demanded an explanation as to why the team would stay in a hotel owned by “a man who is one of the biggest oppressors of people of color in this country.”
“[C]ollege football makes the majority of its profits off the work and talents of people of color. It is absolutely disgusting that the very same people of color who contributed to lead their teams to a bowl game are being rewarded with a stay in accommodations owned by [Trump],” their statement read in part.
The students would continue, saying in a press release, that “The Student Coalition for Progress calls on the Orange Bowl and the Wisconsin Alumni Association to give a detailed explanation as to why this specific hotel was chosen, given the obvious issues with working conditions, racism and human rights violations by the President who is the owner of Trump Hotels.”
Perhaps to their surprise, the Orange Bowl’s Vice President for Communications, Larry Wahl gave them quite the response.
“We are in the fourth year of a multi-year agreement for Trump National Doral to host the team from the Big Ten/SEC/Notre Dame side of our game, or in the case of a semifinal, one of the two teams,” the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
Noting that the hotel arrangements were made before Donald Trump ever announced or was speculated to run for president completely invalidates every single grievance listed by the Student Coalition for Progress. In fact, the choice of accommodation for the Orange Bowl was determined not this year, not last year, but four years ago — well before the thought of a now “President Trump” was even heard of. How would Orange Bowl officials know that this would possibly be an issue when signing the contract? This response by the Bowl’s VP should have put the issue to rest.
Red Alert Politics contacted the SCP to ask if their position had changed since the Orange Bowl gave a rather logical explanation, but the group would not concede from their original stance.
“Our stance was to request an explanation for why the team stayed at those hotels. We received an explanation… from the Orange Bowl,” said the SCP spokesperson. “We are awaiting an explanation from the university and team, and hold the same position regarding the ethics and optics of our university’s actions.”
However, the hotel didn’t appear to be an issue, according to Wisconsin Athletics spokesperson Brian Mason, as he stated, “I have spent quite a bit of time around the players this week and have not heard it brought up as an issue.”
If representatives from the Orange Bowl and the Wisconsin Athletics department both said the choice of hotel was not an issue, then why was it an issue for SCP?
This appears to be further evidence of how offended college students can get over insignificant matters that don’t even involve them. In a rare showing of backbone, neither the Orange Bowl nor the school cow-towed to a liberal agenda to sanitize university involvement from all things Trump. What’s interesting is that the student group had nothing more to say when they were told that their concerns were invalid and that their opinion wasn’t going to provoke an apology.
In the real world, massive multi-year contracts don’t change based on your feelings, and it seems the SCP just got a taste of the real world.
Adam is a junior studying journalism at Mississippi State University.
