tim downer“Freedom should not be shackled to one area like a slave,” Harold (Trey) Orndorff, recently elected SGA senator, said. Orndorff does not believe that restricting free speech on campus to one area is really free speech. Doing away with the free speech area is one of his goals as an SGA senator.
“I want the abolition of the free-speech area. Restricting students’ speech is a First Amendment right breach,” Orndorff said. “A free-speech area on campus is not free speech at all. It is a restriction. The whole campus should be a free-speech area, from the classrooms to the hallways, out into the concrete plaza, down to the grassy knoll.”
Trey Orndorff is serious about our right to the freedom of speech. He believes that every kind of speech should be allowed from all points of view.
One of the points of view that is especially important to Orndorff is Christianity. He is campus minister of the Christian Student Fellowship at NKU. Though not part of his campaign, Orndorff thinks that people should be confident that his goal as a non-denominational Christian is to not only be a voice for all students, but to also hear and be the voice for all Christians.
“Coming from reason and logic I have found no other solution to the ‘world view’ problem other than Christianity,” Orndorff said. He said he came to this conclusion through logic: a way of thinking which he said makes him open to listening to people and evaluating beliefs based on sound mind rather than emotion.
Though raised a Christian, Orndorff said he questioned and examined Christianity himself time and time again, but each time he found that it has stood to be true.
“I hold it to be objectively true that Jesus was the Christ, that he came to earth, died, then rose again the third day,
“I hope by simply living my life I will reach other people and help them come closer to understanding the objective truth of Christianity,” he said.
Christianity aside, Orndorff is also a proponent of a small government. He said he believes that freedom is the right to act without government interference.
“Students should know that I am always fighting for their freedom,” he said.
As far as parking goes, Orndorff said, “We need to cater to the NKU student, which is most of us, who drives and parks. Taking out parking spaces by building new buildings and not replacing and/or adding spaces will only increase the problem.”
“I intend to work on adding parking, not just talking about it,” he said.
Orndorff said he became interested in running for SGA when he saw what needed to be done on campus.
“The thing which really made me get the papers, however, was when the Senate did not have enough members show up to vote for the tuition hike,” he said.
Orndorff campaigned for a position as an SGA senator on the following three issues: to improve the Academic Advising Resource Center’s rules concerning undeclared students and incoming freshmen, to abolish the free-speech area, and to solve the parking issue.