William and Mary - no feathers but still Numero Uno!

From the Online Campus News, I have taken part of the following article from Campus Magazing Online - 2007 Campus Outrage Awards. Hat tip to Karen at Some have hats.

2007 Campus Outrage Awards Proving that crazy and absurd antics of college life are no longer confined to fraternities and sororities but have now expanded into the classroom and administration buildings, the Collegiate Network announces the 10th annual “Campus Outrage Awards.” Winning entries were chosen from nominations submitted to the Collegiate Network. The Grand Prize Winner will receive $1,000, and the four other prize winners will each take home $500. “We use these awards to shed light on the most outrageous instances of intolerance and intimidation on the part of college officials and to let conservative students know they are not alone in battling political correctness on America’s campuses,” said Stephen Klugewicz, executive director of the Collegiate Network. This year’s winners: 1. The College of William & Mary In October 2006, William & Mary President Gene Nichol secretly ordered a college official to remove a two-foot gold cross from the college’s historic Wren Chapel, where it has been on display since the 1930s. When the episode came to light in the pages of the campus’ independent student newspaper, The Virginia Informer, Nichol was forced to explain his decision. He asserted that “the display of a Christian cross . . . in the heart of our most important building sends an unmistakable message that the Chapel belongs more fully to some of us than to others. That there are, at the College, insiders and outsiders.” Though Nichol told tales of students, alumni, and visitors who had complained to him about being offended by the cross’ presence, he produced only one actual letter of complaint and repeatedly denied Freedom of Information Act requests for correspondence he received about the cross. He also went to great lengths to evade an invitation to debate renowned author Dinesh D’Souza on the issue in an event sponsored by the Informer and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). Nichol’s actions in regard to the cross followed on the heels of his surrender to NCAA officials, who threatened to bar the college’s athletic teams from lucrative NCAA-sponsored bowl games unless William & Mary gave up its traditional Indian-feather logo. Though Nichol wrote in protest of the NCAA’s decision, he refused to fight it in court, as other colleges did. The feathers of the William & Mary Tribe are no more. On Valentine’s Day 2007, William & Mary hosted a "Sex Workers Art Show,” featuring topless women, former prostitutes, and current strippers. Hundreds of people packed the college's University Center to witness such edifying performances as a stripper with a sex toy in her mouth undress to the strains of the "Ave Maria.” Twelve hundred dollars in student funds were used to subsidize the event, and some 100 students enrolled in Women’s Studies and Performance Art courses were required to attend the performance. When asked about the propriety of the event, Nichol responded: "I don't like this kind of show and I don't like having it here. But it's not the practice and province of universities to censor or cancel performances because they are controversial.” But apparently it is Nichol's job to censor Christian symbols on William & Mary's campus. [emphasis added]

Please don't tell me president nichol's didn't make fools of us all - nationally - but he was fair and balanced: strip the cross from the chapel and give equal time to the sex shows. What a disgrace! How could the BOV have saddled The College of William and Mary with such a "jester"? But he was fair in fighting the "evils" of religion and allowing the "righteousness" of the sex shows which some could say denigrated the young women who participated. Certainly these shows would have offended the Christian and Muslim women equally. W&M has lost millions of dollars in support and alumni parents of prospective future students may be looking elsewhere unless the BOV gets this mess straightened out. But hark! We did win the $1,000 award for sheer stupidity. But then current "leadership" at W&M who brought about all the hoopla has earned no degrees from The College of William and Mary and has no "collegiate cultural" ties to the college community.