MADISON, Wis. – The faculty adviser to the Knights of Columbus called Thursday for University of Wisconsin-Madison to retract a statement claiming the school has agreed to recognize the group as a student organization.
UW-Madison professor Mark Etzel, faculty adviser to Knights of Columbus College Council 6568, said the university’s statement announcing the agreement late Wednesday was false.
“We have been stripped of our long time recognition by UW-Madison and that unsatisfactory decision remains,” he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Thursday morning.
The university announced late Wednesday that it had reached an agreement to recognize an affiliate of the Catholic service organization that would be open to all students. The university had earlier refused to recognize the group because its membership was limited to Catholic men.
But UW’s announcement of an agreement fell apart Thursday morning when Etzel denied a deal had been reached and the group failed to file the paperwork necessary to be registered.
Still, Casey Nagy, executive assistant to Chancellor John Wiley, said the university would not retract the statement.
“What you have here are people working hard to get an accord on an issue that they understand to be of public concern,” he said. “Our understanding was last night we reached that point.”