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Crossing the line at William and Mary
In a press release issued yesterday, ACTA details its position on a controversy that has rocked the William and Mary community for months:
WILLIAM AND MARY BOARD SHOULD CONSIDER CROSS ISSUE
Thousands of Alumni Concerned; Board Meets Thursday
WILLIAMSBURG, VA (February 5, 2007)--For months, the College of William and Mary has been engulfed in controversy thanks to its president's sudden decision to remove the historic Wren Chapel's cross. In a new letter, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni is urging the college's Board of Visitors to review the decision at its upcoming meeting.
"Over three thousand William and Mary alumni have expressed their concern over the president's decision," noted ACTA president Anne D. Neal. "That is a huge number from an important constituency. The Board of Visitors ought to take their input seriously and review the cross issue this week."
ACTA wrote the letter after numerous William and Mary alumni requested its input on the controversy. As the letter notes, a petitioned signed by over 3,000 alumni who object to the president's decision can be found at the website savethewrencross.org. The Board of Visitors will meet this Thursday and Friday.
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) also weighed in on the controversy last week. While declining to "micromanage" college presidents, he remarked, "My basic feeling about it, though, is look, this was built at William and Mary as a chapel. And I think to respect what it has been, the role it has played in the college, and to have the cross there certainly did not offend me."
"Governor Kaine has it precisely right," ACTA's Neal said. "The Board of Visitors--fiduciaries of William and Mary--should revisit President Nichol's decision at their meeting. We hope they will fulfill their responsibility to students, faculty, staff, and alumni."
In urging the Board to intervene, ACTA wrote:
William and Mary has a unique past and a history that has, for centuries, attracted students and visitors from around the world to the Wren Chapel and William and Mary's special educational experience. As fiduciaries, the Visitors have an obligation to preserve and protect William and Mary's identity and reputation, and ensure that its governance is open to alumni concerns.
Colleges that exclude alumni from important discussions, or simply manipulate them, not only break their covenant with alumni, but also deprive themselves of the independent judgment and broader perspectives that alumni have to offer. Shutting out informed voices of concern at the very moment when the College's valued history and identity are threatened is perilous indeed.
ACTA's letter points out that prior to last October, a cross donated in the 1930s was placed on the Wren Chapel altar--and that it could be removed for any event whose sponsors objected to it. But in October, William and Mary president Gene Nichol reversed the policy so that the cross was removed unless specifically requested. This was done with no public consultation; an administrator later labeled it an effort to make the chapel "more welcoming."
Nichol has since replaced the cross on Sundays and appointed a committee to study the issue further, but the thousands of alumni remain unsatisfied, and negative publicity continues.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is a bipartisan, national nonprofit dedicated to academic freedom, academic quality, and accountability in higher education. ACTA has a network of trustees and alumni around the country and has issued numerous reports including Intellectual Diversity: Time for Action, The Hollow Core, and Losing America's Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century. For further information, contact ACTA at 202-467-6787 or visit www.goacta.org.
More to come as the Board convenes. Meanwhile, read all about the recent campus debate about the cross, between William and Mary religious studies professor David Holmes and author Dinesh D'Souza.
Posted by acta online at February 6, 2007 08:57 AM
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Comments
While I heartily agree with Anne Neal's characterization of alumni as an important group in the discussions ongoing at William and Mary about a room that for 240 years had no cross and for 60 years had a cross that was recently removed, the loudest almuni group in the conversation does not speak for all alumni. The "savethewrencross" group has blanketed alumni with emails and never acknowledged the many of us who have written back to them saying that we agree that the space is appropriate with no cross. There are many alumni views in this conversation, not just one.
Susan Kern, Ph.D. History, 2005
Posted by: Susan Kern at February 8, 2007 10:09 AM
"we agree that the space is appropriate with no cross"
Isn't it true that for many years now, if people have wanted to use the space for a function involving another faith, the cross has always been removed without question? If so, what is the problem? After all, it is a *chapel,* precisely where one would historically expect to find crosses. Why can't a chapel be a chapel?
History and tradition are stubborn things, and I see no harm done by a small cross. Don't people at W&M have work to do instead?
Posted by: Federal Dog at February 8, 2007 02:16 PM
ACTA's claim that "William and Mary has a unique past and a history that has, for centuries, attracted students and visitors from around the world to the Wren Chapel" is false, because the chapel wasn't built until the early 1930s.
The fact that the cross was also donated in the early 1930s is no coincidence. The chapel is a recent invention, just like the building (which wasn't named "Wren" until it was completed) and the school, which was chartered as a state teachers' college in 1888. Whatever the merits of keeping the cross, antiquity isn't one of them.
Posted by: Wm. et Mary at February 12, 2007 11:19 AM