Article Tools
Share on Facebook
Seed Newsvine
Send Article
Print

Letter to the Editor (Feb. 22)

23 February 2008 | By The Flat Hat, The Flat Hat | The Flat Hat » opinions

Cronyism stifling rights

To the Editor:

During my time at the College, I was part of a small but vocal activist community that strived to raise awareness of pressing global and local issues. I worked with others to fight against injustices and the suffocating traditionalism that was stifling cultural diversity and equality on campus. When elected Student Assembly president in 2002, I attempted to address many issues that were dividing this community, but found these efforts consistently blocked by an autocratic administration hiding behind a code of silence.

During my tenure, no issue was more decisive and controversial than the Board of Visitors’ surreptitious appointment of Henry Kissinger as chancellor. This appointment became a catalyst for students, faculty and alumni to rally against the lack of transparency within the BOV. Kissinger’s commission was just another example of the cronyism that infests some members of the BOV (under the contentious leadership of Rector Michael Powell ’85) and the General Assembly. For these reasons, I welcomed the appointment of Gene Nichol as president, seeing it as a sign of progress in combating the College’s disturbing trend to conservative homogeneous elitism.

Five years after my graduation, the unexplained dismissal of Nichol has once again united students, faculty and alumni against the BOV’s equivocal behavior.

Before pursuing graduate studies in journalism, I spent nearly four years in the Army with the First Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, with a year-long deployment to Iraq. I saw firsthand the death and destruction caused by individuals and organizations corrupted by money and power.

It was a slap in the face to return from combat, where I fought to establish democracy in a country that had been oppressed by a tyrannical regime, and see members of the College community fighting for those same rights. It is ironic that the College, which helped give birth to the Constitution, is now attempting to deny those liberties to its own population.

I charge members of the BOV, the General Assembly and Gov. Tim Kaine to provide answers and redress for the unjust dismissal of Nichol and the continued furtive actions of the BOV. A public university is just that: public. It belongs to the people. Students, alumni and residents of Virginia deserve to know why their tuition money, donations and tax dollars appear to be aiding in the oppression of constitutional rights.

— Linsay Rousseau Burnett ’03

  1. Ms. Burnett:
    Exactly what constitutional rights are being oppressed here at the College? What sort of “suffocating traditionalism” is stifiling diversity? Your rant is long on empty rhetoric but devoid of facts. Two facts immediately come to mind to rebut your premise: 1)Project Gateway; 2)The Sex Workers Art Show visiting campus for three consecutive years;

    You mentioned members of the College community fighting for the same rights as you did in Iraq. In fact, students here are exercising their democratic rights which are alive and well. They are protesting, participating in sit-ins, “striking” from class, hanging banners, and questioning their leaders (the board) in public fashion. All of these activities would result in a swift beheading under Saddam Hussein. Yet these activities have not resulted in any punishment for students that participated in them, and rightfully so.

    What tyranny exists at the College? The answer is none. The BOV made a decision, right or wrong, through the established procedures set out by the laws of the legislature of Virginia, which has been duly and fairly elected by the taxpayers of Virginia. The law does not provide for a plebiscite as a means for selecting or retaining the College president. You are reading “rights” into the law that do not, and have never, existed in this context. Student and faculty voices were heard during the process, according to the members of the BOV. That their voices were heard does not, however, mean that they were dispositive. The opinions of these two groups were one of many factors that the board considered when making its decision.

    I salute you and thank you for your service to this great country of ours. However your attempt to analogize the state of affairs at the College with Iraq is wholly inaccurate and unsubstantiated by any facts whatsoever. I challenge you to produce such proof.


    — Pericles    Feb 23, 06:58 PM    #

  2. “It is ironic that the College, which helped give birth to the Constitution, is now attempting to deny those liberties to its own population.”

    Last I checked, the right to “diversity” was not written in the constitution.

    Imagine the foolishness of the founders! If only they had welcomed diversity, they might have not been such unsuccessful men…

    John Jay: “Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people — a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in manners and customs.”

    If only John Jay had an appreciation for diversity, he might have been great like us, right? Hahaha


    — T.S. Eliot    Feb 24, 09:20 PM    #

  3. Ms. Burnett makes the same mistake that Nichol and so many of her classmates make. She takes the role of Martyr for fighting oppression and discrimination, and acts like she was the first to do this. Many of us worked quite hard before she arrived, and this was our objection to Mr. Nichol. I put my scholarship at risk for these same views, and yet she and Mr. Nichol’s supporters go about no end of hand-waving and finger-wagging when I and others like me don’t sing his praises. They keep singing the same song, and it’s the wrong tune. What needed to be done was to look beyond the divisive approach to Diversity that Mr. Nichol has taken all his life and move towards bringing disparate groups together in a spirit of trust. He didn’t do that. The BOV saw through that. The BOV is more diverse that the very student body and Young Guarde Alumni who seem to think the College and the concept of Diversity began with their matriculation.


    — Todd Skiles    Feb 26, 03:57 PM    #

  4. Another definition:

    Hyperbole: “obvious and intentional exaggeration”, e.g. “Kissinger’s commission was just another example of the cronyism that infests some members of the BOV (under the contentious leadership of Rector Michael Powell” [Would that be the same BOV that hired Nichol and also the noted rigth-wing nutjob Sandra Day O’Connor?]

    Outlandish Hyperbole: “Students, alumni and residents of Virginia deserve to know why their tuition money, donations and tax dollars appear to be aiding in the oppression of constitutional rights.” [Ok, let’s lower that M-16 there Ms. Burnett. You’re home now and I’m not Muqtada al Sadr.]

    Beyond Outlandish Hyperbole and into La-La Land: “It was a slap in the face to return from combat, where I fought to establish democracy in a country that had been oppressed by a tyrannical regime, and see members of the College community fighting for those same rights.” [Quick – 2cc’s of haldol followed by a valium/prozac cocktail!]

    Last time I looked the only combat damage on the campus was minor vandalism by Nichol fans. I applaud your service to your country but I think you may be suffering from a little post-traumatic stress disorder. We have this thing called a “ballot box”, remember? It didn’t go away while you were gone. So if you don’t like the VA legislature, vote ‘em out! How about this: remember the purple fingers on proud Iraqis who voted in the first free elections in their lives? YOU helped bring that about! And you should be very proud. Now, did they immediately run out and embrace liberalism, complete with titty shows and the like? No, democracy is a slow and imperfect process. To steal a phrase: it’s about the worst form of government around – except for everything else mankind has ever tried. Let’s calm down and take a deep breath.


    — owens    Feb 26, 05:09 PM    #

  5. Does anybody else find this statement incredibly condescending:

    “It was a slap in the face to return from combat, where I fought to establish democracy in a country that had been oppressed by a tyrannical regime, and see members of the College community fighting for those same rights. It is ironic that the College, which helped give birth to the Constitution, is now attempting to deny those liberties to its own population.”

    What exactly is she advocating? That students directly elect the president and vote on whether to continue the contract of the president? OK – that may work. We’re very intelligent and could probably handle it, given the right information. But the fact that it hasn’t been set up like that and the fact that the BOV chooses the president doesn’t mean that its undemocratic when they do something that Linsay Burnett doesn’t like. I fail to follow her logic.

    It seems to me that its equally undemocratic and anti-liberty to second guess and overthrow democratically created institutions just because they don’t rule in a way that’s favorable to you.

    I’ll add that the Constitution (and many organs of governance in America) combine elements of democracy and representation so that we don’t have the tyranny of the majority. Political theorists have understood for a long time that the will of the majority is not always in the best interests of society, particularly if the majority rides roughshod over the minority. They set up institutions to deal with this issue. Now, Nichol was very good at courting the crowds – but I think we can all admit that that shouldn’t be all it takes to maintain the office of president.


    — D Kuehn    Feb 27, 10:28 AM    #