University criticized for publicizing 'prayer vigil'

The Freedom from Religion Foundation objects to UW-Whitewater calling its gathering for Fort Hood victim Amy Krueger a prayer vigil. The Madison-based organization said the gathering was appropriate, but it should have been called a memorial service. About 100 students and community members attended the event Nov. 11 near Goodhue Hall for Krueger, a former Whitewater student. She was a staff sergeant with the Army Reserve's Madison-based 467th Medical Detachment. The foundation, which works to protect the constitutional principle of separation of church and state, sent a letter to Chancellor Richard Telfer dated Nov. 10 stating it was notified by a student about the possible constitutional violation. "[UW-Whitewater] cannot sponsor a religious memorial service and impose prayer upon its students who wish to pay their respects to their classmate," Freedom from Religion Staff Attorney Rebecca Kratz said in the letter. "Holding a prayer event is offensive to any nonreligious student, including our student complainant and her freethinking friends. They will not only feel excluded but also coerced into a religious ritual by a public university." The organization requested the university resend the campus-wide email invitation with the corrected name of the event included. Any other posters, signs or other means of announcing the event also needed to be changed. University officials said they did not resend the e-mail because the event was not university sponsored. Melissa Di Motto of the Marketing and Media Relations department said student groups do not generally use that system to announce events, but did not say why it was used in this case. "I don't really feel comfortable commenting on that, so I'm not going to," she said. Di Motto did say the university is reviewing campus communication policies. As to calling the event a prayer vigil, she said that was the choice of the organizers. "Because this was not a university-sponsored event ... they're certainly free to name their event whatever they choose to name it," she said.

• Facebook Comments
• Site Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out