Hillary Clinton probably thinks she’s helping to smash the glass ceiling by tapping a woman for CEO of the Clinton Foundation, but unfortunately her pick for the position has some unsavory history.
University of Miami President Donna Shalala, who Bill Clinton announced will head the foundation when she leaves her post at the school later this year, attempted the stop a conservative group founded by for female students from gaining official organizational status on campus in the early 2000s, as reports the Daily Caller.
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The group, Advocates for Conservative Thought, was founded by Colleen Donovan, Nathalia Gillot, Andrea Kiser and Sarah Canale with the mission of exposing and promoting “conservative principles and ideas in society.”
Unfortunately for the students, Shalala’s administration — particularly the Committee on Student Organizations — refused to approve the group three different times — twice in 2002 and once in early 2003 — because it too closely resembled the College Republicans chapter already established on campus.
Upon learning of the group’s rejection, free-speech crusader Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) went to bat for the founders, sending a letter to Shalala highlighting the unfairness and hypocrisy of her administration’s actions.
“The University of Miami has imposed awful restrictions on freedom of speech, association, and conscience,” said FIRE CEO Thor L. Halvorssen back in 2003. “A place that should be a center of debate and discussion is behaving as if there were an official quota on political diversity and intellectual views.”
“The University of Miami is perpetuating an injustice,” he continued. “President Shalala’s inaction is a scandal. We will stand by these students, as we would stand by any group of students suffering unequal treatment for wishing to express their ideas.”
Just weeks after FIRE created a stink about the administration’s denial of the group, Shalala wrote in a statement, “The purpose and content of those organizations absolutely should not be subject to review. … I have asked Committee on Student Organizations to implement a new policy that is consistent with the principles of free speech, academic freedom, and competition.”
Advocates for Conservative Thought was shortly thereafter approved by the administration.
While Clinton herself did not explicitly reject a group founded by women who don’t share her political point of view, the incident certainly raises questions about whether or not the people Hillary surrounds herself with are truly for the advancement of all women — regardless of political ideology.
Hillary’s own support of women in the professional space has been scrutinized recently, as it was discovered that the former U.S. senator paid female staffers working in her Senate office 72 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts.
Shalala is a longtime Clinton ally, having served as the secretary of Health and Human Services during Bill Clinton’s entire presidency.
H/T Daily Caller
