Gene Nichol, the president of the College of William and Mary, resigned today after being told by thy Rector that his contract would not be renewed. You can find his letter to the W&M community here. I believe it is safe to say that this might just be a sore spot in the future for W&M come admissions time, if this is publicized like it ought to be. Here is an few excerpt:
I have made four decisions, or sets of decisions, during my tenure that have stirred ample controversy.
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.
As the result of these decisions, the last sixteen months have been challenging ones for me and my family. A committed, relentless, frequently untruthful and vicious campaign — on the internet and in the press — has been waged against me, my wife and my daughters. It has been joined, occasionally, by members of the Virginia House of Delegates — including last week’s steps by the Privileges and Elections Committee to effectively threaten Board appointees if I were not fired over decisions concerning the Wren Cross and the Sex Workers’ Art Show. That campaign has now been rendered successful. And those same voices will no doubt claim victory today.
As a side note: there is a response from the Board of Visitors on the WM PR site (read it here) to Nichol’s resignation, and it opens with this:
President Nichol has announced he will not serve the remainder of his term. We had hoped that he would and regret his decision.
“We had hoped that he would” can be taken in two ways, can it not? The first (and hopefully the interpretation that was intended) is that the Board had hoped that Nichol would “serve the remainder of his term”. The second, which the cynic in me finds quite amusing and potentially accurate, is that the Board had hoped that he would not serve the remainder of his term, as announced.
I think the rest of the response to the resignation is worth reading, quite possibly more so than the latter half of Nichol’s own letter. Here’s another choice outtake:
Many policies championed by President Nichol are fully embraced by the Board. We agree unflinchingly with the President’s efforts to make William and Mary a more diverse educational environment. His achievements in this area will be the most enduring part of his legacy. We will continue the pursuit with vigor and will insist that all future presidents of the College do as well. We strongly support the Gateway program and will work to put it on sound financial footing by building an endowment that will allow it to blossom. Equally, we continue to see the enormous value that attends to the efforts of internationalization and civic engagement. And, so there is no doubt, the Board will not allow any change in the compromise reached on the placement of the Wren Cross.
Ah yes, of course the Board would support diversity. Every college in the U.S. wants to be “more diverse”. Of course they support the Gateway program; what would the rest of the world say if they took that one away? “Look at those rich bigots over at W&M!” They’re also big on civic engagement and ‘internationalization’, and so they won’t put the Cross back up. Maybe. Since when is America entirely Christian? Why is this just internationalization? Why isn’t this considered AMERICANIZATION?
Goodbye first amendment, hello censorship. Sorry, kiddies, no controversial exhibitions for you. Come on over to VCU.
p.s. W&Ms website is so last century. Just like their policies.
