Indulge me for a moment. I realize the big story out of Virginia yesterday was the big primary win for Obama. But there was ANOTHER big story going on at my law school alma mater, the College of William and Mary.
Gene Nichol, President of the College, resigned yesterday after the Rector of the College informed him that his contract would not be renewed.
Some of you may remember, but over a year ago, I diaried about some of the controversy President Nichol faced with respect to the Wren Cross. For a recap, look below the fold...
President Nichol removed the Wren Cross from the Wren Chapel from permenant display in October, 2006. As he explained then:
Questions have lately been raised about the use of the Wren Chapel and the cross that is sometimes displayed there.
Let me be clear. I have not banished the cross from the Wren Chapel. The Chapel, as you know, is used for religious ceremonies by members of all faiths. The cross will remain in the Chapel and be displayed on the altar at appropriate religious services.
But the Chapel is also used frequently for College events that are secular in nature--and should be open to students and staff of all beliefs. Whether celebrating our happiest moments, marking our greatest achievements, or finding solace during our most profound sadness, our Chapel, like our entire campus, must be welcoming to all.
I believe a recognition of the full dignity of each member of our diverse community is vital. For this reason, and because the Chapel is surpassing important in William and Mary's history and in the life of our campus, I welcome a broader College discussion of how the ancient Chapel can reflect our best values.
Since that point, President Nichol has been under fire. A law professor by trade, and a fierce defender of the First Amendment and the Constitution, President Nichol was by any definition, a "progressive." As he explained in his e-mail to the William and Mary community yesterday, his initatives during his term should be lauded by progressives everywhere:
First, as is widely known, I altered the way a Christian cross was displayed in a public facility, on a public university campus, in a chapel used regularly for secular College events -- both voluntary and mandatory -- in order to help Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and other religious minorities feel more meaningfully included as members of our broad community. The decision was likely required by any effective notion of separation of church and state. And it was certainly motivated by the desire to extend the College’s welcome more generously to all. We are charged, as state actors, to respect and accommodate all religions, and to endorse none. The decision did no more.
Second, I have refused, now on two occasions, to ban from the campus a program funded by our student-fee-based, and student-governed, speaker series. To stop the production because I found it offensive, or unappealing, would have violated both the First Amendment and the traditions of openness and inquiry that sustain great universities. It would have been a knowing, intentional denial of the constitutional rights of our students. It is perhaps worth recalling that my very first act as president of the College was to swear on oath not to do so.
Third, in my early months here, recognizing that we likely had fewer poor, or Pell eligible, students than any public university in America, and that our record was getting worse, I introduced an aggressive Gateway scholarship program for Virginians demonstrating the strongest financial need. Under its terms, resident students from families earning $40,000 a year or less have 100% of their need met, without loans. Gateway has increased our Pell eligible students by 20% in the past two years.
Fourth, from the outset of my presidency, I have made it clear that if the College is to reach its aspirations of leadership, it is essential that it become a more diverse, less homogeneous institution. In the past two and half years we have proceeded, with surprising success, to assure that is so. Our last two entering classes have been, by good measure, the most diverse in the College’s history. We have, in the past two and a half years, more than doubled our number of faculty members of color. And we have more effectively integrated the administrative leadership of William & Mary. It is no longer the case, as it was when I arrived, that we could host a leadership retreat inviting the 35 senior administrators of the College and see, around the table, no persons of color.
Of course, the Board of Visitors took great pains to say that the non-renewal of President Nichol's contract was not "ideological," but everybody knows better.
If it truly wasn't "ideological," President Nichol wouldn't have been offered "hush money":
I add only that, on Sunday, the Board of Visitors offered both my wife and me substantial economic incentives if we would agree "not to characterize [the non-renewal decision] as based on ideological grounds" or make any other statement about my departure without their approval.
To President Nichols credit, he told them to stick it. He, and his family, have been attacked over the past year, according to his e-mail. It was probably best to get out now and get it over with. He will retain his position as a law school professor (THANKFULLY, despite the fact some zealots think he should not stay on the College's payroll) but not hold the Presidency.
Dean Taylor Reveley assumed the interim Presidency at the College. I will say that Dean Reveley is a good man (he was my Dean in law school) and should serve the College well. I don't envy him at this time, because the College is an uproar, as evidenced by protests yesterday in Williamsburg like this one:
It's really too bad. I wish President Nichols well. In fact, I think he should become the new Dean of the Law School.
It's high time one of the oldest schools in America, the "College of the Presidents," the bastion of thinkers like Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall...
it's high time they joined the twenty-first century.
The past three Chancellors of the College of William and Mary are Sandra Day O'Connor, Henry Kissinger, and Maragaret Thatcher. No, I'm not kidding.
President Nichol gave us some balance, and was forward thinking (I know...shocking for an institution of higher learning).
No College should be influenced by zealotry at the cost of academic freedom. Certainly no public school. And certainly not one with the reputation of William and Mary.
So, Virginians and others, celebrate a good election day for progressives and Democrats.
But remember there is still a lot of fighting to go. And there's one brewing in Williamsburg.