Earlier this semester a talk by former Bush White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card at UMASS, Amherst was met by protest. Many at UMASS hoped that was the last we’d see of one of the propagandists of the Iraq War. No such luck.
Recently we learned that Andrew Card will be appearing at the 2007 UMASS, Amherst Graduate School Commencement to receive an Honorary Degree. That’s has angered many students, staff and faculty at the campus.
Last week members of the campus community met with Stephen P. Toco, the Chairman of the UMASS Trustees, and voiced their displeasure. He refuses to rescind the invitation.
In response, students and faculty have begun to hold and organize protests against Card’s degree.
If you are present employee of UMASS, a student, or alum, please sign this petition expressing your disagreement with the UMASS administration’s choice.
It’s not like the guy is Dick Cheney ( or Mugabe, for that matter).
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From what I hear, he wasn’t part of the group pushing the Iraq war.
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So isn’t this just guilt by association? Some UMass students/faculty don’t want the Univ. to give an honorary degree to a Bush Republican.
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I go to UMass, by the way, and I think the protest at his lecture was pretty lame and disrespectful to say the least.
That someone would be given one just because they had a career as a political operative and are from the state disgusts and insults the me. What a chump I was, to actually work for my degree, not to mention pay truckloads of tuition.
but it would be intellectually dishonest to call for Card’s degree to be revoked while ignoring the fact that the dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, still holds an honorary degree from UMass.
This man is a Republican, a former Bush crony, and should not be allowed to speak at a public university in a state that is so overwhelmingly the property of our Democratic Party. This “free speech” idea has limits. As people cannot yell, “fire” in a crowded theater, so too, Republicans should not be allowed to speak to impressionable students at a public university. Giving an honorary degree to such a man from a proud Marxist university is a disgrace.
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Certainly, those responsible for this fiasco should be sacked. Those at the university that support “free speech” should be sacked.
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Time to take back the university from the right-wingers.
Yes, please, ban all people from the campus with any contrarian view! It may interfere with my Marxist schooling!
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Including the 40% who voted for Bush in 2004.
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Is your worldview really so delicate, so fragile, that having your premises questioned is the eqivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theatre? How sad you are.
Anyone that went to UMASS knows the story of how it got to be so leftist in the ’70s. If you could go through all that and still had an open mind, you were special indeed. Betcha’ a nickel that UMASS caves in on this. Ah, the spine of a jellyfish…
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satire
I didn’t see this as a satire. Shame on me. Maybe I’ve just become too cynical over the years seeing “leaders” target any dissent or question as a hostile attack. Sadly, not just the Republicans. Everyone wants to be a brownshirt.
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When I went to school in Boston in the ’60’s there was an organization, “The Ford Hall Forum.” They would put on lectures in Boston’s Jordan Hall by famous and not-so-famous people where the speaker would talk for about an hour and answer questions for about the same time. All kinds of speakers came. Ayn Rand, Martin Luther King, Jr., Pete Seeger, from the whole political spectrum. The moderator was Judge Rubin Lurie, as I remember. He was a gentleman and allowed for one rule. Respect. There was no booing, hissing, shouting down allowed. The judge would explain this in his own dignified manner. The idea was that open, free expression made for an effective citizenry.
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Maybe the Ford Hall Forum was on to something.
As said earlier, he’s no Robert Mugabe, but he’s looking more and more like a Watergate spook. Check out the testimony today (May 15) by former Deputy Attorney General on ‘ol Andy’s use of deceit in attempting to smooth the way for GWB’s domestic eavesdropping plan. Someone who has personally done so much damage to our country’s ideals does not deserve this recognition.