Posted on 04/03/2003 9:16:45 AM PST by Jeff Head
Some alumni donors are pressuring the president's office and the Office of Development and Alumni Relations to fire Professor Nicholas De Genova for statements he made in last week's anti-war teach-in.
In the past few days, donors have barraged the offices with emails and phone calls, informing the University that they feel that De Genova overstepped the limits of academic free speech.
In mass-mailed email messages circulated among each other, alumni have urged each other to issue an ultimatum to the University: Fire De Genova or lose our donations.
"We've gotten a lot of calls," said Thomas Gray, who is in charge of alumni giving in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations. "The people who have called have been very upset. They're proud of their college heritage, and they're very unhappy that this occurred."
CC alumnus Steve Stuart wrote an email a few days ago to over 100 alumni--whose combined "net worth," he said, is at least $250 million--asking them to express outrage to University President Lee Bollinger.
"Until he is fired, the University will suffer," Stuart said. Many of those alumni responded to Stuart's request with letters sent directly to Bollinger. Like Stuart's, nearly all of the emails issued warnings regarding the alumni's continued financial support of the University.
Frank Cicero, CC '92 and Senior Vice President of Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers, told Bollinger that he felt De Genova's presence on campus "pollutes the educational atmosphere."
That "pollution" may compel Cicero to stop contributing to the University.
"In the past, I believed that it was naive and in bad taste for alumni to withhold gifts because of the political opinions of faculty members," Cicero said in his email to Bollinger. "However, I am now considering doing just that in response to the vile and mendacious comments made by De Genova."
Donor Peter Ross, CC '87, MBA '94, and a member of the Ivory Capital Group, told Bollinger that De Genova's comments made him ashamed of the University.
"This will weigh heavily on my heart at the end of the year when I consider the financial sacrifice that I am willing to make for the University," Ross wrote.
For other alumni, the controversy has become a family matter. Vincent Butkiewicz, CC '79 and MBA '85, promised Bollinger that he would cancel the donation he made in a recent fund drive, assuring him that "you should not expect to see any donations from me nor an application for admission from any of my children until Prof. De Genova has been fired."
Peter Butkiewicz, CC '85, sent a nearly identical email. And their father, John Butkiewicz, CC '51 and a former member of the U.S. Army, informed Bollinger that he was revising his will to exclude Columbia.
That would be a dream come true!
Paschal seldom writes as explicitly as De Genova, though. He prefers to just parrot the Socialist Slogan of the Day.
Nonetheless, I have quite taken him and his apologizers to task. Check it out: http://www.bsudailynews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/03/28/3e83de593a4d3
"Will commit treason for money/food"
at that same corner.
I've decided to write my next UPI column on this (and related) subjects. The title will probably be, "Freedom of Stupidity?"
As for the tarred & feathered remedy, I offer this from Mark Twain, "I feel like the man who was being ridden out of town on a rail. He said, 'If it wasn't for the honor of the thing, I'd rather walk.' "
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, now up on UPI, and FR, "The Berlin Solution to the Baghdad Problem."
Hit em where it hurts!
Check out the replies on this thread in conjunction with it.
I know there were probably many who started emailing about this at the same time, but one of the first, and one of the most effective campaigns started right here on FR ... we've got the experience.
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