An email sent to all faculty, staff and students last week by President Shirley Raines expressing her views on Senate Bill 51, which would allow faculty who own gun permits to carry weapons on campus, has one student questioning whether it's a university president's place to communicate political opinion to students.
Ronnie South, junior business management major, sent a reply to Raines' email via his own University of Memphis email to the majority of U of M students Wednesday. He mailed a printed version to Raines, he said, and was still in the process of sending out the email to more students Thursday afternoon.
In the email, South said that Raines shouldn't "use her office as a soap box to promote anti-gun politics."
"I disagree with the administration's decision for utilizing the school's email distribution list to students and alumni for political reasons and I believe that everyone is entitled to hear both sides of this argument. Overall, I simply wanted to balance the scales of this issue," South told The Daily Helmsman Thursday.
Bob Eoff, vice president of communication, marketing and public relations, said Raines has not commented on South's response. He said he did not directly receive the email from South, but was shown it on Thursday.
"It's a free country, and he can certainly express himself," Eoff said.
South said that though he hopes the legislation becomes law, his main reason for sending out the email was to educate teachers and students on the facts of the issue.
"Emails like the one sent from Shirley Raines, who claimed to represent the will of many students, teachers and law enforcement, but offer no facts on the issue or forum for discussion, are not productive in truly determining the best course of action for our school and state," South said.
In his email, South cited articles from the Washington Post and the Commercial Appeal and linked to statistics of U of M crime and to Senate Bill 51, all of which he used to show support of the bill.
In one section of the nearly 700-word message, South referenced one of Raines' quotes from her email to students and faculty.
"Currently, the University of Memphis is one of the safest campuses across the south," she said.
South said Raines based that statement off The U of M's Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report, to which he included a link to, but the Commercial Appeal "publicly brought into question" The U of M's reporting of crimes in their article, which is subtitled, "College figures don't always match reality."
South closed his letter to Raines saying that opposition of Senate Bill 51 forces people who can lawfully carry guns "to make a choice of breaking the law or giving up their right to self defense and possibly becoming a statistic."
He said he received a "flood of replies" from both teachers and students.
Lizz Crowson, senior marketing management major, was one student who replied to South in favor of his email.
"I totally agree with you," she said in her reply, "and was greatly offended that she used her ‘power of authority' to say that my constitutional rights were bogus! (sic)"
Senior psychology major Helen Casper told South there were better ways to express his concern, such as a personal email to Raines or a letter to the editor of The Helmsman.
"For whatever it's worth, I am a strong advocate for free speech," she told The Helmsman. "Abusing The University email system, however, is spam and not responsible freedom of speech."
Casper copied Raines' assistant and Director of Police Services, Bruce Harbor, on her reply to South.
She suggested that "appropriate actions be taken against (South) or anyone else who wishes to abuse the system for their own gain."
"This is not an issue of freedom of speech," she continued. "It is an issue of generating and proliferating unsolicited political emails."
