Posted on 03/22/2003 5:59:05 PM PST by Mears
A Tufts senior had her Senior Award,one of the highest awards on campus,revoked by the university's Alumni Association because of her "inappropriate and offensive" behavior during a recent campus protest of former President George H.W. Bush.
Elizabeth E. Monnin was accused of making a vulgar hand gesture at Bush as he chided her and other protestors who disrupted his remarks on February 26 about the 1991 Gulf War.
This is the first time in the 48 year history of the Senior Award that the honow has been revoked.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff, 3/22/2003
As tensions and protests mount on campuses over war in Iraq, Tufts University alumni leaders have revoked an award given to a senior because of her ''inappropriate and offensive'' behavior during a recent campus protest of former President George H.W. Bush.
The university's Alumni Association - an independent group with close ties to Tufts leaders - has accused the student, Elizabeth E. Monnin, of making a vulgar hand gesture at Bush as he chided her and other protesters who disrupted his remarks about the 1991 Gulf War.
Alumni officials said the gesture and other jeers made Monnin ineligible for the association's Senior Award, one of the highest student honors on campus. The nonmonetary award is given for academic achievement and ''potential for leadership.''
Tufts president Lawrence Bacow was briefed about the alumni group's decision but was not involved in it, Tufts and alumni officials said. Bacow was not available for comment yesterday, but a Tufts official said he had also been upset by the protest.
For Monnin, the loss of the Senior Award was perhaps predictable, since much of her campus leadership centered on organizing confrontational protests. A women's studies and peace and justice double-major with an A-minus average, Monnin was an architect of a two-day takeover of the Tufts admissions office in 2000 to protest discrimination on campus, and has led other demonstrations over the last four years.
In an interview yesterday, she accused Tufts officials of ''silencing'' her because they disapproved of her spirited protests against war. She also said the hand gesture was actually made by another student protester.
''People in power don't have to get out and rally to make their points - they can do things like take an award away from a student who is making an argument they don't support,'' Monnin said.
Alumni fury over Monnin's behavior - which was witnessed by a crowd of 4,800 attending Bush's speech - created a bind for Tufts officials and the alumni association. Bacow and Tufts trustees are counting heavily on alumni to build up Tufts' endowment, now a relatively modest $677 million, to help the school vie for the best faculty and build modern labs and facilities. Alumni contributed about one-third of the $600 million raised during Tufts' last capital campaign.
Tufts officials and alumni leaders said they supported Monnin's right to free speech and to protest against Bush, but that they were also sensitive to alumni concerns.
It is the first time in the 48-year history of the Senior Awards that the honor has been revoked, alumni officials said yesterday.
Alan M. MacDougall, president of the Tufts alumni assocation, said he had received ''dozens'' of complaints about Monnin's behavior at the annual Fares Lecture, a high-profile event that often draws trustees and prominent donors, and is named after a former Tufts trustee who has given millions to the university.
MacDougall, who was at the speech, noted that Bacow had asked audience members to show respect to Bush.
''She chose to express her strongly held views in a way that was inappropriate,'' MacDougall said.
During the Feb. 26 event, held in a campus gymnasium, Monnin and about five other students sat close to the stage and turned their backs as Bush spoke. When the former president began discussing the first Persian Gulf War and the possibility of renewed conflict in Iraq, she and others raised a banner that read, ''Gyms are for soccer, not for warmongers,'' and joined in a chant decrying Bush's foreign policy. Another student held an upside-down American flag with an obscenity scrawled on it.
As the students were being ejected from the gym, Monnin said, Bush sought to lighten the moment by recalling a run-in with abortion rights protesters who he found noisy. According to Monnin, the Tufts protester who had been holding the flag then flashed the vulgar gesture at Bush. This student was off campus for spring break, Monnin said, and not available to comment.
MacDougall said yesterday that ''more than one person'' identified Monnin as the student who made the gesture, and that the protest in general had offended many students, alumni, and Tufts officials.
''When I became aware that Elizabeth was involved in that demonstration, I felt that the complaints made it necessary to ask the committee to reconsider her suitability,'' MacDougall said.
He declined to describe the deliberations of the awards committee, but said the decision to revoke the award was ''very, very firm.''
The day before Bush's speech, Monnin had been notified that she would receive a Senior Award this spring, along with 11 other classmates. Last week, MacDougall sent a registered letter to Monnin's family home informing her of the association's decision. Monnin, who chose to make the letter public, said she hoped to discuss the matter with Bacow and alumni leaders, but would not appeal the decision.
''Now that we're at war, this is a great time for dialogue among alumni and students about the prowar and antiwar messages, and about protest strategy,'' Monnin said.
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 3/22/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
(for fair use in discussion / education)
Either the "globe.com" part of the original link doesn't work (this link is to "boston.com"), or the very last character (small L) got truncated by FR.com or not typed by poster
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