More Liberal University "Balance"

Cindy Sheehan will be speaking tonight at the State University of New York Campus at Oneonta.

ONEONTA — The State University College at Oneonta has booked a Fox News Channel military analyst to counter a lecture tonight by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, who retired from the Army in November 2003 after leading a mechanized infantry battalion into Baghdad, will give a presentation sponsored by the student-run College Union Activities Council at noon Friday in the Hunt Union Square.

The College Union Activities Council, which has an annual budget of $37,500 this year, will pay Sheehan almost one-third of its entire coffer - $11,000 - to spew her anti-war venom on campus, while Lt. Col. Rutter will only be paid $600.

Campus coordinators insist Rutter is being paid what he asked for, but this huge disparity is hardly the best part of the story:

Sheehan’s lecture will be given in the Hunt Union Ballroom, which has a capacity of 800 people. Rutter will give his presentation in the 75-person capacity Hunt Union Square.

So this is Oneonta's idea of political "balance": The university is willing to dish out taxpayer-subsidized stipends at an almost 20:1 ratio to attract leftist anti-war speakers, and even when it's willing to invite someone with opposing viewpoints, he's allowed to speak to one-tenth the audience.

I sure hope New York taxpayers are paying attention.