hear hear!

Posted as-is:
Dispatches from the Culture Wars: William and Mary President Ousted:

Gene Nichol has been forced out as president of the College of William and Mary. Nichol was the one who made the perfectly reasonable decision that a chapel used by a multitude of different religious groups should only display the Christian cross during Christian services, a decision that launched a firestorm of ridiculous criticism from the religious right. The college's controlling board was not going to renew his contract and he resigned as a result. But it doesn't stop there. They also tried to buy him off, offering cash in return for his pretending that the situation was not ideological. To his credit, he refused the payoff. Nichol released this statement:

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...

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...

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. Some members may have intended this as a gesture of generosity to ease my transition. But the stipulation of censorship made it seem like something else entirely. We, of course, rejected the offer. It would have required that I make statements I believe to be untrue and that I believe most would find non-credible. I've said before that the values of the College are not for sale. Neither are ours.

The entire William and Mary community should be embarrassed over this whole situation. This is one of the great universities in this country, one with a long record of educating our greatest leaders, including Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. But this is a black stain on the reputation of the university. It may, and should, cause both potential students and faculty to think twice before attending a school that can railroad a president out of his job for daring to defend the Constitution.