Since removing a wafer from a University of Central Florida communion ceremony, undergraduate Webster Cook has received numerous calls for his expulsion from school. Please join CFI student leaders and take a stand for free speech--urge UCF President John Hitt to sustain a commitment to Constitutionally-guaranteed liberties.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

John C. Hitt President, University of Central Florida Millican Hall 308 P.O. Box 160002 Orlando, FL 32816-0002 abarnick@mail.ucf.edu

Dear John C. Hitt:

We are writing in response to the recent controversy surrounding University of Central Florida student Webster Cook. Countless people have publicly proclaimed that they are sending letters to your University demanding the expulsion of Webster Cook.

Let us quickly recap the events in question. Webster Cook went to a communion ceremony on campus, not at a Catholic Church, and was given a communion wafer by the celebrant of the ceremony. When Mr. Cook failed to engage in the prescribed ritual, some in the congregation demanded the wafer's return; he refused to do so. Mr. Cook returned home, and as the incident gained exposure and threats were issued, he returned the wafer.

Even looking at Webster Cook's actions in the worst possible light, they amount to nothing more than conduct that some would consider blasphemous. Blasphemy falls within the Constitutionally-guaranteed right of free speech.

We can understand that you are experiencing an onslaught of public pressure to punish Webster Cook and one can certainly argue that his behavior was insensitive. Yet this begs the question: what would the size of your student body be if you expelled all students who were insensitive? An enlightened university education reinforces the virtue of free speech's role in a civil society. While offensive to a portion of the population, Mr. Cook's actions were in no way illegal; however, if carried out, the threats of physical violence leveled against him are indeed illegal.

The Center for Inquiry, with which we are affiliated, values the highest ideals of the university in promoting critical thinking and freedom of inquiry. To expel Webster Cook for his actions would betray these principles.

Below are the signatures of many prominent Center for Inquiry campus affiliate group leaders and other supporters. We strongly encourage you to denounce the threats of violence against one of your undergraduates and sustain your support for freedom of speech on your campus.

Signed by:

Campaign Launched:
July 31, 2008