Petition Says Southern Methodist Univ. Tries to Silence Faculty Who Protest Bush Partisan Institute

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/6664

Petition Says Southern Methodist University Attempts to Silence Faculty Who Protest Bush Partisan Institute
by Susanne Johnson | Apr 10 2007

A new online petition charges that administrators at Southern Methodist University (SMU) have been attempting to silence faculty protest against the politically partisan institute that George W. Bush seeks to include in his presidential library complex. The petition invites faculty members and teachers everywhere to sign in support of the SMU faculty protesters, and in dissent against the Bush institute.

Posted April 7, the petition reports that SMU’s interim Provost has blasted faculty members for resisting the institute, for speaking to the press, for circulating petitions, and for not relying strictly and only on the Faculty Senate to voice concerns.

In addition, it claims that SMU’s President attempts to intimidate faculty members into silence by saying that if they protest the institute they will cause the university to lose the library, along with the loyalty of disappointed mega-donors.

Entitled "Books, Not Bombs: Say No to Bush Political Institute," the petition says it borrows language directly from another online petition launched April 5 by a group of 120 faculty members at SMU--formulated as an "Open Letter" that asks the president and trustees to decline the institute.

While President Bush requests an all-in-one package that includes the library, museum, and institute, he stipulates to SMU that the institute must be completely independent of any oversight whatsoever by the University.

But faculty members worry that the institute will borrow on the scholarly credibility of SMU in the Academy while remaining completely unaccountable. Research Fellows will be hired by the institute director to propagate the partisan agenda set by President Bush, faculty members say, but they will not be vetted through the same process as other SMU professors and researchers.

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[Frances]

1. Why isn't the library at the Falwell law school that Bush has

used as a source for hiring corrupt lawyers to work for our government?