A bill requiring Arkansas public institutions of higher learning to fly the American and Arkansas flags on their campuses passed a state legislative committee with flying colors Friday.
House Bill 1993 was recommended to the Arkansas House of Representatives on a voice vote by the House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs Committee.
State Rep. Jim Sorvillo, R-Little Rock, said a move earlier this month at a California university to ban the flying of the American flag in student campus offices inspired him to ensure the same thing didn't happen in Arkansas.
"This is something dear to our heart," Sorvillo told the committee. "Not too long ago we had heard that [University of California] Berkeley had decided not to fly the American flag. When we think of the American flag ... we see stripes and bars but also we see so many faces dear to us -- my father served in World War II, a friend of mine that was killed in Vietnam."
The incident to which Sorvillo referred actually occurred at the University of California, Irvine.
Earlier this month, after someone removed a U.S. flag that hung on a wall in a common area of the student government suite, six members of the campus Associated Students Legislative Council passed a ban on posting flags of any nation in the office lobby.
A higher student panel vetoed it two days later after veterans and state lawmakers condemned the move. The university's chancellor, Howard Gillman, labeled the original vote "outrageous and indefensible."
After reading about it, Sorvillo said he assumed that Arkansas colleges and universities flew the flag, but later learned "it was not a requirement."
"That prompted me to go ahead and run this bill, which I think basically salutes all the people that have made not only a great contribution to our country, but to our state."
Under the bill, all publicly supported institutions of higher learning in the state shall fly the American flag and the Arkansas flag on "all national and state holidays and at other times determined" by the colleges and universities. The bill contains no penalty for not following the provision if it became law.
State law already requires all public secondary schools to post both flags, according to Gail Morris, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Education.
The state has 11 four-year public universities and colleges and 22 two-year institutions of higher learning, said Harold Criswell, the deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
He said he was unaware if any of the schools did or didn't fly the flags. "I don't think that's something we know. We suspect all campuses have flags. It's just not something we know or deal with."
A representative of Arkansas' Independent Colleges and Universities, which has 11 private universities and colleges as members, also couldn't say definitely whether all of them fly flags.
"I think the U.S. flag flies at some spot on all of our campuses, but I have never paid much attention," said Rex Nelson, the organization's president.
Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, asked Sorvillo if every school was even equipped to fly a flag. "Are we confident every school already has a flagpole to fly the flag?"
Sorvillo said he didn't know but added that he has been assured by representatives that Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville both fly flags.
"I think this is more of a statement, hopefully, [and] a great reminder for our young people, as they process through their four or five years, of what this country is all about," Sorvillo said.
Metro on 03/28/2015