Frist receives awards while students protest selection

Amid rain drops and protestors' cries, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist '74 accepted both the University's Woodrow Wilson Award and the American Whig-Cliosophic Society's James Madison Award on Saturday.

Frist received the Wilson Award in front of about 1,700 alumni, parents and students who had gathered for the University's annual Alumni and Parents Day.

In his award speech, Frist addressed his most pressing concerns as leader of the Senate and described his roles in Congress as both leader and visionary.

"[My biggest challenge] is to compel the United States Congress to stretch our horizons . . . to address what is to me a very obvious growing imbalance between the policies on the one hand and the inevitable, immutable demographic shift caused by the aging of America's population," Frist said.

In terms of specific policy goals, Frist added that Medicare reform and AIDS research were top on his list.

Medicare, Frist said, will be in need of dire reform as the baby boomers reach old age. Within seven years, the senior population will increase from 12 percent of the U.S. population to 22 percent. These numbers, Frist added, will invalidate the current Medicare approach.

He said that Congress must create a longterm solution for the Medicare problem to provide future elderly Americans with broad choices, good benefits and relatively affordable premiums.

Similarly, Frist said that he was working closely with President Bush to increase global aid for the AIDS crisis, which he termed a "devastating humanitarian crisis."

The Woodrow Wilson Award is given annually to an undergraduate alumnus or alumna whose career embodies the call to civil duty in Wilson's speech, "Princeton in the Nation's Service."

Later on Saturday, Frist received the American Whig-Cliosophic Society's James Madison Award in Nassau Hall's faculty room.

The Whig-Clio James Madison Award was named for the Society's founder and is annually given to a public figure who embodies the "spirit of service and patriotism upheld by America's fourth President," according to the Whig-Clio program for the event.

Frist again highlighted goals as Majority Leader, citing Medicare reform and AIDS research as top priorities, but also added to the list by mentioning malpractice insurance reform and the destruction of threatening biological and chemical weapons in Iraq.

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While emphasizing the same policy priorities that he spoke of in the morning at Richardson, Frist went on to elaborate on the government's response to terror and the possible war in Iraq.

"We will never return to pre-Sept. 11 normalcy, but nevertheless that is our goal," Frist said. "The response to terror is to personalize . . . to make the public aware."

Before Frist's Richardson speech, several different groups gathered north of West College to protest his presence on campus and selection as Wilson Award recipient.

About 25 members of the Queer Radicals' Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) and Another World is Possible — a graduate student action group — displayed posters and chanted, "Senator Frist go away; racist, sexist, anti-gay," for the duration of the award ceremony.

The Queer Radicals rallied against the choice of Frist, given his civil rights voting record. They specifically cited his vote against the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, which has been debated in Congress since the mid-1990s.

The SGAC was also protesting Frist's recent stance on AIDS funding, citing in their press release that he has "dramatically scaled back a key piece of legislation that would authorize US spending on global AIDS, TB and malaria programs."

Virgilio Sklar '03, organizer of the rally, said that the groups' efforts were successful overall because they changed some people's perception of Frist. He said that while most people who left Richardson reacted negatively to the rally, those who talked to the group were surprised by Frist's voting record and recent actions.

In response to the Queer Radicals and SGAC, four students affiliated with The Princeton Tory or College Republicans — Evan Baehr '05, Rachael Rawson '05, John Andrews '05 and Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky '04 — staged a counter protest.

The group handed out pamphlets debunking what they termed, "radical lies about Bill Frist."

"Sen. Frist is a excellent leader," Andrews said. "He is a man of principle, and he is a dedicated physician and Senator. We found the actions of the Queer Radical highly inappropriate. I am personally offended by their action."

Alumni, largely unphased by the protests, said they did not even know why the groups were protesting in the first place. When informed of the groups' political stances on Frist's record, responses varied.

"I think it's wonderful that students are expressing their political voice," said Gail Franck '83.

Other alumni were more disturbed by the attacks on a man they deemed a "stalwart."

William Etherington '68 of Virginia said, "No, I don't think he's any of those things [the groups are protesting against] . . . I don't he's racist and certainly not anti-gay. As a doctor I also don't think he cares little about AIDS."