Saturday, September 15, 2007

Summers Disinvited   [Stanley Kurtz]

After protests, the University of California, Davis has rescinded a speaking invitation to former Harvard president, Lawrence Summers:

After a group of UC Davis women faculty began circulating a petition, UC regents rescinded an invitation to Larry Summers, the controversial former president of Harvard University, to speak at a board dinner Wednesday night in Sacramento....

UCD professor Maureen Stanton, one of the petition organizers, was delighted by news of the change this morning, saying it's "a move in the right direction."..

When Stanton heard about the initial invitation to Summers, she was "stunned." "I was appalled that someone articulating that point of view would be invited by the regents," she said. "This is a symbolic invitation and a symbolic measure that I believe sends the wrong message about the University of California and its cultural principles."

Stanton and other women on campus began circulating a petition Tuesday night by e-mail to colleagues at several campuses in the UC system. In two days, they had collected more than 150 signatures.

"None of us go looking for a fight," Stanton said. "We were just deeply offended."

The petition states that "this invitation is not only misguided but inappropriate at a time when the university is searching for a new president and continues to build and diversify its community."

"The regents represent the leadership and public face of the University of California," the petition states. "Inviting a keynote speaker who has come to symbolize gender and racial prejudice in academia conveys the wrong message to the university community and to the people of California. It is our fervent hope that the regents will rescind this invitation and seek advice elsewhere."

09/15 10:48 AMShare