STAFF EDITORIAL

Hillsborough Community College was the center of controversy when it was reported that one of the largest community colleges in Florida had removed the Pledge of Allegiance from a meeting agenda.

HCC not only received local and state attention, but the story broke out nationwide when it was reported the HCC Institutional Advisory Council (IAC) dropped reciting the pledge from their agenda.

The HCC IAC voted in September, to drop the Pledge of Allegiance from the meetings, which will affect the Dale Mabry Campus.

The Institutional Advisory Council is made up of fellow HCC students, staff and faculty. The IAC discussed the appropriateness of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at meetings voicing concerns about how some members expressed views that the Pledge made some feel uncomfortable, and that it violated their beliefs academic freedom.

Campus officials, clearly unhappy about the decision and negative attention brought upon HCC, turned to the spokeswoman of HCC, Ashley Carl, to release a statement:

“The administration is very disappointed that they would take an action that would prevent our campus councils from saying the pledge, if they deemed that’s what they would like to do.”

This decision has people riled up over the 12 to 14 seconds it takes to recite the pledge, but what is interesting was why this situation is even a problem.

After the Hawkeye asked several HCC students from the Ybor City Campus what their thoughts on the controversy were, most of the students had no idea this situation was even occurring.

After all, we just finishing up midterms.

The one student who was up to date with the controversy was Michael Salazar. He said, “Whether or not the Pledge of Allegiance is said at these meetings really is the least of HCC problems.”

A couple of weeks after the pledge was dropped from the agenda, an executive meeting was held, and all campuses, voted for the pledge to be added back into the agenda.

Co-chair of the HCC Ybor Advisory Council Patrick Cureton spoke out on the on the controversy explaining how the Ybor Advisory Council was late to the meeting, and arrived in the middle of the discussion on the pledge.

The Ybor council then decided not to vote on the pledge, a decision Pat Cureton regrets, “Personally, we should have voted against removing the pledge.” For November, the pledge is back on the agenda. It is our opinion, it never should have been dropped in the first place.