GREENVILLE, S.C. (ABP) – Students, administrators, faculty and alumni of Furman University are in an uproar over a speech by President Bush, scheduled for the school's May 31 commencement exercises in Greenville, S.C.
The controversy at the moderate school – located in one of the most conservative parts of one of the reddest states in the Union – has played out in local and national media. The spat has prompted arguments over censorship, academic freedom and respect for graduating seniors among students, faculty, administrators and alumni of the historic Baptist liberal-arts college.
“Under ordinary circumstances it would be an honor for Furman University to be visited by the president of the United States. However, these are not ordinary circumstances,” began a letter of objection that originated with the school's faculty and was signed by more than 200 professors, administrators and students. It referred to the way that the Bush administration sold the Iraq war to the public as well as its treatment of terrorism suspects, handling of environmental and scientific issues and promotion of deficit spending.
“We are ashamed of these actions of this administration,” the letter continued. “The war in Iraq has cost the lives of over 4,000 brave and honorable U. S. military personnel, wounded more than 13,000 military personnel so severely that they are unable to return to duty, killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, will cost more than 2 trillion dollars, and has severely damaged our government's ethical and moral credibility at home and abroad. Because we love this country and the ideals it stands for, we accept our civic responsibility to speak out against these actions that violate American values.”
The letter was posted on the school's official commencement-information website shortly after Furman officials announced that Bush was scheduled to speak. A group of conservative Furman students then drafted their own statement, gathering more than 500 signatures from current students as well as some faculty, administrators and alumni.
The response, orchestrated by Furman's Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow, quibbled with some of the faculty-organized group's criticisms of the administration. But the bulk of the statement criticized what it described as a “publicity stunt” by the faculty.
“Count us among the disappointed and embarrassed — disappointed at an administration that acquiesced to irresponsible faculty demands, and embarrassed by a faculty that sacrificed professionalism for publicity,” it said.
“Unfortunately, some professors seem intent on turning what should be a celebration of their students' accomplishments into a forum to air their political differences with President Bush.
‘We object' sounds open-minded and charmingly contrarian, but not when the ‘objection' is entirely unrelated to the president's commencement speech.”
The statement requested that administrators remove the faculty-led objection statement from the school's website. If that request was denied, the conservative group said, it requested that its statement be posted alongside the objection.
Administrators refused to remove the original objection statement, but agreed to post the conservative group's manifesto alongside it.
The response statement also objected to reports that some professors had asked administrators to be released from their contractual obligation to attend commencement exercises, and asked administrators not to grant such requests.
Administrators refused the student request, and issued a statement explaining their response to the conservative group's demands.
“Furman will sustain its longstanding policy whereby individual faculty members must request permission from the dean of the Faculty to be excused from commencement. Those faculty members who have cited conscientious objection to the president's visit have been excused and, as always, all such requests have been treated with respect and confidentiality,” the administration statement said. “The intense discussion about the participation of the president of the United States in Furman's commencement reaffirms the university's foundational commitment to being a crossroads of competing ideas and perspectives.”
Bush has become one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history, with his approval ratings at or near the lowest levels for any president since polling firms began tracking such statistics.
According to the Greenville News, Bush's appearance at Furman was the result of overtures to the White House by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican and Furman alumnus. Sanford's office contacted Furman president David Shi, who had to gain the approval of the graduating class's student leaders to change the school's tradition of featuring only student speakers at commencement exercises. According to the News, none of the students objected – although not all class officers attended the meeting.
Bush has made only two other appearances at graduation exercises this year. On May 4, he addressed graduating seniors at a high school in Greensburg, Kan., which was virtually wiped off the map a year before by a powerful tornado. On May 28, he was scheduled to address graduating cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
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Read more:
Furman University faculty and student statement objecting to Bush policies
Furman Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow's response