Posted on 10/11/2018 1:51:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Dozens of faculty and staff members at Eastern Kentucky University have sent a letter to the schools president in opposition to President Trump. The letter, with over 100 signatures, comes days before Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally on the universitys campus.
The faculty letter does not oppose the rally itself, but condemns Trump and the campaign he ran, saying it is against to the universitys values. It also raises concerns about disruption to student life from the rally.
We must object to this campaign which has consistently, openly, and unambiguously attacked the values of inquiry, learning, and free speech which lie at the heart of higher education and form the core mission of this University, the letter reads.
The faculty express concerns about Trump's approach to science, immigration, and civil rights, in addition to threatening rhetoric.
Their representatives have worked to silence and discredit opponents rather than entering into dialogue with them, while those same representatives have objectified and demonized countless minority and disenfranchised groups who have made easy targets for their exclusionary rhetoric, the letter reads.
A spokeswoman for the university told the Louisville Courier Journal that university president Michael Benson has corresponded with some faculty members about the letter, but declined to comment further.
The school urged calm in a statement: We understand this election season has been filled with a number of passionately debated issues, and we encourage our community to remain civil and respectful of differing political opinions in the discourse surrounding the rally."
Gerald Nachtwey, a faculty member who helped write the letter, told the Courier Journal that it was written after students said they were frightened and confused about the rally.
"Fundamentally we saw the audience for the letter as being the student body and people in the community in and around Richmond," Nachtwey said.
Trump will hold a rally at the schools Alumni Coliseum on Saturday, the first time a sitting president has visited the university. The Donald J. Trump for President campaign is renting the space, according to the universitys website.
No more federal tax money to Eastern Kentucky University!
Why do tax payers have to finance the ‘enemy within’?
Good idea!
I live in Richmond and I'd say that most of them are originally from Kentucky. I have tickets for the rally on Saturday night. Should be fun.
Our daughter was recruited by EKU to play soccer. She ultimately chose a different school but we got the sense the school was pretty conservative. Too bad the faculty is so poisonous.
With 16,000 students there's probably around 800 faculty members and "dozens" signed the letter.
BTW, I have tickets for the rally and I expect it to be fun.
since when do universities have open inquiry and free speech? Those values were on their deathbed 35 years ago with the first wave of political correct victimhood propaganda espoused by the insecure and neurotic invading higher education.
If you’re talking about your children, well, sorry.
Kentucky went for Trump 63/33. It’s a red state. Why aren’t they teaching in Berkeley?
Unfortunately they are there busy poisoning the well by propagandizing in lieu of teaching to susceptible students. These people are the intellectual equivalent of plague vectors.
Actually, that's something Dr. Benson (EKU President) might actually do.
Re Dr. Benson... He’s not a nut; he’s very level headed and I’d say beloved by most students.
OH NOES!!!11! ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE OPPOSE TRUMP!11!!! CALL THE PRESS!11!!!!
TMI-Too Much Information.
Safe bet. The faculty member they named as an author of the statement, Gerald Nachtwey, shows his education as:
Loyola University Chicago Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Middle English Literature,
and University of Wisconsin-Madison Bachelor's degree in English Language and Literature, General
EKU is staffed by professional bed wetting radicals.
Oh, what that woman did to Mizzou!!!! Enrollment has plummeted!!!!
Not any decent values.
They are so stupid.
The MAGA rally will bring families to the campus who would otherwise never see that campus or even consider going there.
But these stupid faculty will never get that...
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