Fire Professor or Lose Funds, Columbia Alumni Say

Columbia Spectator ^ | 04/03/03 | Margaret Hunt Gram

[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.

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[goldstategop]

Like Baghdad Pete. I love the smell of unemployed Leftists in the morning.

[rs79bm]

bttt.

[Tacis]

I'd love to see this work! However, one of the major strengths of commie/America-hating academics is tenure, the policy that says that, except for the most extreme offenses, a professor can't be fired. It was designed to ensure that professors were free to voice opinions that were unpopular without fear of being fired for stating those opinions. The commies glomed on to this license years ago.

This could backfire. Columbia won't fire the guy and academic traitors all over the country will feel enboldened. Just spend any time at a public university and you will hear anti-American stuff you wouldn't believe.

[68skylark]

I've already written to my U. S. Representative and my Senators about this. Columbia currently gets about 300 million dollars a year in government funding.

I told them that no school should receive U. S. taxpayer money if the school tolerates teaching hate and armed violence against U. S. military personnel.

I hope that's not too radical an idea for them to accept.

[DoughtyOne]

Look at this guy's comments. The university president can't even figure out that he needs to be fired. It calls the question, what would this guy have to do to get fired? Incredible. That's why I say just shut the place down, if it's that rat infested.

[Jeff Head]

Amen ... got to start somewhere. If this guy is not let go ... then Columbia will be on that path. Can't keep operating with insufficient funds.

[Mamzelle]

The tire and the pavement--bump

[longtermmemmory]

next lets talk about the feminazi studies department.

[Zebra]

There is no such thing as free speech. Everything has consequences and comes at a cost. People who want consequence-free speech of actions are cowards without courage of convictions.

Get this, De Genova: if you want to take an unpopular stance, be courageous about it. Expect consequences. One is that your employer will suffer as a result of public opinion. This is normal and natural. The same rules apply to Dixie Chicks and idiot actors.

I will defend to the death your right to say anything, no matter how idiotic. But do not expect a pass, especially as regards commercial/business consequences.

You are a jackass, De Genova. But that is your right in America, and thousands of our finest young people are putting their lives on the line to let you continue to be a jackass.

[Jeff Head]

Amen ... fired and dogged the rest of his life ... unless he wants to move to Havana for a few years until his icon there goes the way of all the world.

[Grampa Dave]

Any university or left wing news agency that hires him after he is fired will become the next maggots on the menu to be exposed and destroyed.

[Jeff Head]

This aspect of reality apparently doesn't hold as true on campus as it does elsewhere, but now reality is rearing its punitive head at Columbia.

And it is a reality and consequences of his/their own making ... as well it should be.

[68skylark]

The professor in this case doesn't have tenure.

Even if he did have tenure, he can still be fired for certain egregious statements.

Teaching hatred and violence against U. S. military personnel doesn't seem "egregious" to some people, but it does to most of us. And we can enforce our standards of common decency if we work at it.

I'm not worried about any "backlash" from doing the right thing.

[Budge]

Hit 'em where it hurts, the pocketbook BUMP!!

[Jeff Head]

I don't think he is tenured.

[Jeff Head]

Amen ... and not radical at all. What they have a tough time accepting sometimes in their ivory towers is common sense.

[BlueLancer]

"However, one of the major strengths of commie/America-hating academics is tenure..."

But I believe that I read on another thread, in this particular instance, that this is an UNTENURED professor.

[goldstategop]

Amen. I'm in favor of defending people's right to disagree, but I draw the line when it comes to question your own country's existence. People who hate America that much need to be hounded for the rest of their miserable lives. We let Hanoi Jane get away with it. We sure as heck don't need to tolerate it from the likes of a yellow belly coward like Dr. de Genova.

[Jeff Head]

But do not expect a pass, especially as regards commercial/business consequences.

Amen to that.

[newzhawk]

With so many liberals on their alumni list I am glad to see them finally put a stop to this crap!!!! Parents will only put their kids in schools that have a decent reputation and this guy needs to go- the Black Hawk helicopter going down 2 -3 days after his Mogudishu comments I am sure spiked a revolt! Congratulations for the pressure put upon this cretin,