Posted on 02/13/2008 12:38:17 AM PST by Paleo Conservative
The president of the College of William & Mary, Gene R. Nichol, announced his resignation yesterday. His announcement came after he was told that his contract would not be renewed for the coming 2008-2009 academic year.
Nichol has a history of clashing with the Board of Visitors and William & Mary alumni since his start as president in 2005.
More conservative members opposed Nichol's decision to take down a cross that adorned a chapel used for both secular and religious events. Dissent also arose when he allowed a sex-workers art show to take place at the university; some members of the community felt that the show was distasteful, while Nichol defended the show as an exercise of free speech.
With his resignation, Nichol made it clear that in his opinion, the school's decision not to renew his contract was because of conflicting values, not because of any sort of major administrative mistake that damaged the university.
However, Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) has claimed that Nichol failed to properly report a withdrawn $12 million donation after Marshall submitted a FOIA request.
It appears that Nichol made a lot of headway at William & Mary during his short tenure. He created a financial aid program that financially supported all in-state students with a household income of less than $40,000. As a result, the class of 2011 was the most diverse class in the school's history. Additionally, as of this year, William & Mary now organizes the greatest number of service trips of any college in the country.
William & Mary hired Nichol because they had confidence that he was capable of making decisions that were in the best interest of the school. Indeed, the decisions to remove the cross and allow the sex-workers show were two decisions that were going to go against some beliefs, and coincide with others. There's no way to please everyone, but it seemed like Nichol was generally doing a good job in his role as president.
If Marshall's claim turns out to be true, William & Mary does have grounds for firing Nichol, but even then it seems like an odd technicality to fire a successful president over.
If members of the alumni do not agree with some of Nichol's decisions, then they can show their opinions by choosing not to donate money, which many were reported to have done.
Students at William & Mary have created an organization called William & Mary Students for Nichol that vocalizes the importance of the student and faculty voices in making decisions as opposed to a small board making decisions based on ideologies. Hopefully the Board of Visitors will rethink putting its views before the wellbeing of the university.
The president of a university has a huge responsibility to make decisions based on what the university and its students and faculty need most. If a president appears to be doing this, as Nichol did, then that should be enough secure his or her position.
You chose quite well. Compliments!
“If members of the alumni do not agree with some of Nichol’s decisions, then they can show their opinions by choosing not to donate money, which many were reported to have done.”
And if the board of visitors did not agree with some of Nichol’s decisions, then they can show their opinions by choosing not to renew his contract. This is how it works in the real world boys and girls. This actually should be a valuable lesson for that diverse student body, since once their four years of “service trips” come to an end, the person who signs their pay checks will be holding them accountable for their actions in a similar fashion.
And if an idiot leftist hack of a university president becomes such an enormous embarrassment that even a liberal university board cannot bear it anymore, they have every right and duty to look for a better president asap.
As I recall it is university founded by a church. It's amazing how administrators act as if they actually own the institutions they run. I'm glad to see a board of regents grow a spine.
William and Mary Initiates Anonymous "Bias" Tip Line and Investigatory Tribunal
Free America's Alma Mater . org ^ | www.freeamericasalmamater.org
Posted on 10/26/2007 7:09:48 PM CDT by manapua
William and Mary president resigns in disgrace
Michelle Malkin ^ | February 12, 2008 | Michelle Malkin
Posted on 02/12/2008 10:57:25 AM CST by 3AngelaD
"Vocalizes the voices"?....This is a student writer from the prestigious school Virginia Tech?
Indeed, the decisions to remove the cross and allow the sex-workers show were two decisions that were going to go against some beliefs, and coincide with others. There's no way to please everyone,
If there is no way to please everyone on the college level, then it absolutely true on the K-12 level as well. There is a difference here though. Parents can choose not to send their kids to William and Mary ( I absolutely wouldn't) and alums aren't forced to donate.
All education has moral, ethical ( religious), cultural, and political content and consequences, therefore all education is ideological. Always!
The writer of this editorial is like a fuzzy chinned, nascent Marxists.
"Vocalizes the voices"?....This is a student writer from the prestigious school Virginia Tech?
Indeed, the decisions to remove the cross and allow the sex-workers show were two decisions that were going to go against some beliefs, and coincide with others. There's no way to please everyone,
If there is no way to please everyone on the college level, then it absolutely true on the K-12 level as well. There is a difference here though. Parents can choose not to send their kids to William and Mary ( I absolutely wouldn't) and alums aren't forced to donate.
All education has moral, ethical ( religious), cultural, and political content and consequences, therefore all education is ideological. Always!
The writer of this editorial is likely a fuzzy chinned, nascent Marxists.
Put the cross back.
The $12 million donation was withdrawn by a wealthy SWVA coal mining magnate with strong ties to W&M, who was incensed by Nichol's removal of the cross from the chapel. Apparently, W&M didn't get the money back, and Nichols tried to hide it.
I don't know how the author of this article can consider Nichol as a successful president when he managed to repeatedly piss off the school's mostly Conservative donor base with his liberal antics, and the bottom line began suffering for it.
Insanity seems to be a widespread problem at VA Tech.
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