SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The University of Rhode Island Student Senate last night backed away from asking the College Republican club to apologize for advertising a “White Heterosexual American Male” scholarship, but the club is being asked to send clarification letters to the 40 people who applied.

The letters are to explain something that many Senate members felt was not clear in the one-time ad that ran in the collage newspaper last fall — that there was no scholarship and that the ad was meant to be a satirical statement on affirmative action.

The outcome followed nearly two hours of debate by the Senate, which occasionally discussed the matter directly with Ryan Bilodeau, the Republican club’s chairman.

Bilodeau, who made a formal address to the Senate and continued to insist that the club was not willing to apologize, said afterward that the Senate decision was a good way to put the matter to rest.

“We have said all along that we were willing to compromise,” he said. “The only thing we will not do is apologize.”

The bill passed last night also calls for the Senate to work in an advisory role with the Republican club for one year to make sure it is aware of the Senate’s bylaws, and it calls for the Senate president to issue an explanation to the URI student body, explaining that the Republican club says the ad was meant to be satirical.

The club could lose its recognition status if it does not follow through with the letters, leaving it without access to university facilities and without the $250 it receives annually in student activity fees.

At a meeting that brought forth a wide range of views, Senate President Neil Leston urged members to vote for the bill, saying it was a good way to resolve a matter that could otherwise drag on for months because the Senate does not meet during the summer.

“Whether it was satire or not, we have to address the issue to the best of our ability,” he said. “I think we have an opportunity to put an end to it tonight.”

Some Senate members opposed the bill, saying it let the Republican club off too easy and ignored a violation of Senate bylaws forbidding student organizations from discriminating or impeding equal opportunity based on race, color, gender, sexual orientation, national origin and other “non-merit” factors.

“I am personally offended by your event, not your ideology,” Senate member Cristin Langworthy told Bilodeau. “You’re not making a progressive statement, you’re discriminating.”

The ad ran Nov. 15, urging interested students to apply for a $100 scholarship. Bilodeau said the ad cost $170, of which $166 was raised by club members and $4 came from student activity money the club received.

The one-page applications asked students for their name, e-mail address, phone number, major and grade point average and also asked: Are you white? Are you a heterosexual? Are you an American? Are you a male? Applicants were instructed to describe, in 100 words or fewer, what it means to be a “White Heterosexual American Male” and to describe adversities they “have had to deal with and overcome.”

The Senate had been considering a bill to strip the Republican club of recognition status if it did not apologize, but URI President Robert L. Carothers and the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, among others, objected this month, saying the sanction would amount to forced speech, violating the U.S. Constitution.

redgar@projo.com