As The State newspaper reports this morning:
Some professors and students plan to protest President Bush’s commencement address at Furman University today. A few professors will stand. Others will wear armbands. And some will just skip it altogether.
The president’s speech, the first commencement address by a sitting president in Furman’s 182-year history, sparked an intense back-and-forth between students and professors about the right to protest Bush’s policies and the desire to honor graduating students.
“There’s a part of me that wants to be there for the students,” said Stanley Crowe, chairman of the English Department at Furman, where he has taught for 34 years. “I want to be there for the institution, for what it stands for. And what it stands for is the opposite of what George Bush stands for.”
Crowe was one of more than 100 professors — roughly half of the university’s faculty — who signed a petition objecting to Bush’s visit. Crowe said he plans to stand during the president’s remarks to note his opposition.
At a meeting Friday, professors discussed their plans to protest Bush’s visit. Crowe said some professors plan to wear white T-shirts that say “We Object” on the front and back. Between 10 and 20 professors will stand. “Everyone will rise when the president is introduced and we will keep standing until he stops speaking,” Crowe said. “If they say ‘Sit down,’ we won’t. If they say ‘You have to leave,’ we’ll leave quietly. We’re not going to say anything or shout slogans or anything like that.”
Furman Provost Thomas Kazee said the university will not seek to remove protesters, as long as their actions are carried out “in a dignified way so the message is received but the majesty of the moment is not lost.”
Meanwhile, the Bush Youth are holding up their end of the bargain, having defended their Chancellor with a petition of their own -- see the value of free speech on a university campus? -- and now browbeating the faculty in media interviews:
Christopher Mills, a 21-year-old junior who heads up a group called Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow, said he and other students have been let down by their professors. “When the faculty letter came out, we were just disappointed by what we saw as something that was more of a publicity stunt as anything else,” Mills said. “We didn’t want people to think that most or even half of the people at Furman felt this way. We wanted the focus back on the students and not on faculty who disagree with the president politically.”
Mills’ group countered the faculty-led petition with one of their own. It has been signed by more 700 people so far, roughly half of whom are students.
“As students at Furman, we thought this was reflecting badly on all of us,” Mills said.
And who was behind this entire debacle? Governor Mark "Vet Me, Senator McCain, I'm Ready to Serve" Sanford, the Libertarian in Republican clothing who took a degree from Furman way back when he was just a young LIRC. According to reports, Sanford jumped the gun, arranging Dubya's visit to Furman before informing Furman's president that he'd done so -- not only subverting the university's authority to choose its own commencement speaker as it's done before, but boxing in its president to swallowing Sanford's shotgun arrangement and getting himself in hot water with his faculty. Sanford ought to apologize heartily to David Shi when this is all over. Take him out to dinner. Better yet, give him a gift certificate for dinner out, so as not to punish the man further in public.
Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, said the governor, a Furman graduate, called the White House to see if Bush would be interested in addressing the graduating class.
“The governor knew this was the time of year when the president might be accepting invitations to make commencement addresses,” Sawyer said. “He called the White House and mentioned the possibility to him, and then he called (Furman President David Shi) to see if they would extend an invitation.”
Shi consulted with some Furman students and extended the offer, angering some professors, who feel they, too, should have been given a chance to weigh in on the decision. The faculty voted to admonish Shi for not consulting them. “In my judgment, he could have said ‘Thanks but no thanks,’” Crowe said. “None of it needed to be made public. No one needed to be embarrassed.”
Efforts to reach Shi were unsuccessful.
No doubt. He's likely in hiding, praying for no blood to be shed, praying that this day comes and goes as quickly as possible, praying that he, too, will be able to get work when this is over. Prediction: Furman President David Shi will be employed elsewhere by July 1, 2010.
Given that Sanford had already reached out to the White House, some professors wonder whether Furman officials could have refused to extend the invitation. But Kazee said the administration did not feel boxed in. “I don’t think we felt we couldn’t say no,” he said.
In recent years, Furman has not had outside speakers and has relied instead on students to make the commencement address. When university officials met with student leaders to discuss the prospect of having Bush make the speech, they thought it was a good idea, Kazee said. “They felt this was a situation where an exception was warranted,” he said.
Furman was not caught off-guard by the strong reaction to Bush’s visit, Kazee said. “I understand the strong feelings a president can arouse, especially at a time of war and with a president who isn’t very popular,” the provost said.
As his time in office draws down, Bush has reached historic lows in voter disapproval. A recent CNN poll found 71 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush is doing as president, the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded for any president. White House spokesman Blair Jones said the president “looks forward to making the address.” Bush, he said, is not deterred by the prospect of protests.
“The cornerstone of American democracy is the right to dissent,” Jones said.
Mmm-hm. So long as that dissent is held far from cameras and from Dubya's field of vision.
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