Our publication has chosen not to support or disapprove Robert Gates’ appearance on campus this week. As a student newspaper, we try to voice the opinions and positions of our student body in relation to our administration, faculty and to society, but there is no good that can come out of publicly backing or opposing Gates and his practices while he was the Defense Secretary for this country.
The purpose of our institution is to give students an education. An education that is hopefully well-rounded. Based upon the negative, and sometimes public, reactions and protests to Gates’ appearance on campus as part of the Vance lecturer series, a memo needs to be written to some of the faculty at this University.
It’s childish and immature to think that your protests and outcries were meaningful. You should be leading by example. That example should not be to shun someone speaking to your students who might have an opposing view from yours.
Isn’t this why we embrace debate? Wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity to let your students do some research and make decisions for themselves? Faculty Senate tried to pass a resolution in disapproval of Gates from coming to campus. For the sake of hearing more than one side of politics, we should all be thankful that our Provost stopped that conversation from continuing.
Whether they agreed with Gates, thought he was wrong in every decision or simply didn’t care, our faculty should have been enthralled with the fact that his speech, and appearance on campus, gave students the chance to make their own verdicts about him.
Step back and look at what you were fighting against. You ask your students to write rebuttals and take into account opposing viewpoints in their research papers, but when it came to Gates, some of you would have rather cut out the chance for any point, counter-point debate.
The journalism department, and the faculty in that department, has shown the majority of our staff how to be fair and balanced. They’ve taught us about fair comment and criticism. Those ideas are missing when you try to shut someone out just because you are worried about the fact that students don’t support him or match up with his ideologies.
We’ve now had the opportunity to hear him speak and pepper him with questions. Didn’t that feel good? Participating in high-level educational discussions with opposing view-points is so much better than just ignoring that the other side exists, or trying to prevent a protest.
The faculty and administration head-butted over one man, who is no longer in a position of power, more than they should have. It’s encouraged for the faculty to question decisions made by the administrators, but this was overkill.
We’re led by a group of outstanding individuals. This editorial is, by no means, an attack on the faculty or administration at this school. That is not our intention, it’s much simpler than that.
Your students don’t have an aversion to standing up for themselves. Some of us rallied, while some chose not to. If we feel that we don’t agree with something, don’t find it insulting when we stand up for ourselves. We’re not standing up against the University, but to the ideals that we don’t agree with.
We don’t like being short-changed. Our student body can make decisions. We can handle hearing and conversing with someone who isn’t on the same side of politics as we are. Trying to block him out only made some of us feel like you didn’t think we could handle it. We can.
