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Lee University, the first CCCU member to be visited by the protesters, is not going to block the Equality Ride from campus, but President Paul Conn said the school will not offer a platform in chapel or classes during the March 16-17 visit.

Conn said he wishes his school, located in Cleveland, Tennessee, were later on the list. "It would be helpful to me if I could pick up the phone and ask other presidents, 'How did it go?' I wish I had that luxury."

Conn says he asked Reitan to not bring his group to Lee's campus.

"It was clear he knew nothing about Lee and describes Lee in a one-size-fits-all cartoon-like description of angry fundamentalists," Conn said. "We have lots of discussions about homosexuality on our campus, and that dialogue occurs among those of us who have investment in our campus."

Soulforce sent a letter to the Cleveland chief of police stating that there will be a day of "nonviolent direct action and a possible nonviolent act of civil disobedience" on March 16. Conn doesn't think the visit will be a major concern, however, and said the school has not changed its planned schedule.

Before its stop at Lee, Soulforce will pay its first visit to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, on March 10.

Liberty, which was the target of an earlier version of the Equality Ride last year, has decided not to allow Soulforce on campus. "It is now our firm belief that Soulforce is not acting in good faith and is simply trying to use such encounters on Christian college campuses as a media attraction and for their ultimate purpose of fundraising," Chancellor Jerry Falwell said in a written statement.

Before acknowledging his homosexuality and forming Soulforce, president Mel White was Falwell's ghost writer. The two have a long history of conflict over the issue, and both groups are based in Lynchburg.

When the Equality Ride travels to Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, on March 18, it will find an emptier campus. The students will be on spring break.

"I was grateful that we wouldn't have the same challenges that some of the other colleges might have with their uninvited visit," said Union President David Dockery. Still, Union will provide a meal for the group. It has refused a request for a public forum.

Abilene Christian University is still determining a schedule of events with Soulforce, but President Royce Money said the university decided to put Equality Ride participants in a hotel. Money explained that the offer to pay for hotel rooms was made after students offered to host the protesters in college apartments and in off-campus houses.

"We are a university that is able to talk about all sides of the issues and teach our students how to respond," Money said. "One of the good things it has done was to make us realize that we had not done a good job in informing our students to deal with a variety of cultural forces that they will face after college. So this has encouraged us to do a better job."

Biola University spokesperson Irene Neller said Equality Riders will talk with administrators and student leaders, but Biola will not give them a public forum during their April 4 visit to La Mirada, California.

"It's just not a form that we practice," Neller said. "For any solicitor, any vendor, we just don't give access to our students at free will. That's the protection we give our students at a private school."

Unlike many schools, Neller said, Biola has not informed the student body or parents about the visit.

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March (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50