William & Mary Set to Explode Over Fired President (updated)

I received this in an email from Sean Walsh of William & Mary College. Tensions are running high, and the entire campus is mobilizing against the University's reactionary and unaccountable Board. Analysis below.

Comrades and dear Friends,

I write to you tonight to relay the events that have been curiously unfolding at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, over past thirty-six hours. On Tuesday morning, February 12th, the widely-popular and progressive Gene R. Nichol, President of the College, tendered his resignation, following a decision by the Board of Visitors to not renew his contract (set to expire at the end of the academic year). President Nichol bravely denounced the Board of Visitors and their attempt to purchase his silence as to the true reasons for which he was Fired - free speech and broad-minded Change to a traditionally conservative institution. The Board of Visitors, the governing body of the College, is composed of the political appointees of the Governor of Virginia. The majority is not otherwise active members of the William & Mary Community, and has in their decision-making process continuously silenced the Voices of students, staff, faculty, and alumni, who are overwhelming in support of President Nichol and the substantive, progressive Change he has made to this institution in three, short years.

In the wake of the shock of President Nichol's sudden resignation, members of the Faculty of the College of Arts and Science issued a call for fellow faculty-members to join them in a "Strike", refusing to hold regular classes on Wednesday (2/13) and Thursday (2/14), during a spontaneous rally of over 500 students, staff, and faculty in support of Our President. Following this announcement, members of the William & Mary Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) announced a student strike in Solidarity with their professors and, unequivocally, Comrades-in-arms. That night, over 1500 students expressed their grief for our community's loss of a great man by congregating in front of the President's House to intone to Gene Nichol the Alma Mater of Our College. Students - stunned, grieved, incensed - are experiencing 'the fierce urgency of Now'.

Today, Wednesday, February 13th, over 400 students and faculty occupied the lobby of the University Center in an informal sit-in to voice their opposition to the dismissal of President Nichol and to the blatant disenfranchisement of their voices at the highest administrative level of Our College. At a subsequent student- and faculty-organized Town Hall Meeting, over 700 members of the William & Mary community gathered to organize their Resistance to the Gross Injustices committed, adopting a list of five tentative demands, overarching points of unity to amalgamate the disparaged and channel their grief and anger toward Constructive ends. Those who are affected most by the decisions of the Board of Visitors now actively express their Opposition to the secrecy and egotism of this distant, aloof body.

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 14th, the day usually devoted to the capitalistic display of 'love', the William & Mary SDS have asked Faculty and Students to join them in a Teach-In in the Sunken Gardens of Our Old Campus - an active reclamation of education, denying the legitimacy of any attempt to circumscribe the academic freedom of students everywhere - young and old.

As events continue to unfold over the following days, the members of the William & Mary SDS ask our comrades and compatriots throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and across the country to stand in solidarity and to support our struggle to regain control of Our College. Our message permeates well beyond the confines of our campus. It touches at the very Heart of what it means to be a student of life. Knowledge and the pursuit thereof should be in the hands of those who actively Engage it. Allowing our lives to be dictated by detached strangers amounts to a Denial of the Truth we seek - Freedom.

In Solidarity,

Sean Walsh
William & Mary Students for a Democratic Society

This presents a tremendous opportunity for student organizers, and such a sudden, apocalyptic event like this puts to the test all of our previous campus organizing. Such a clearly shocking and unjust action is occasion to ramp up radical demands, and an occasion to actually attain them. I look forward to finding out what the five demands agreed upon are. Here are a few I thought of that are useful in a structural manner:

• The reinstatement of President Nichol (no-brainer)
• The installation of four students, four faculty members, and four staff members (all elected democratically by their constituency) as members of the Board of Visitors with full voting rights.
• The requirement of a majority student-faculty Presidential Search Committee.
• The ratification of all Board hires and firings by a vote of students, faculty and staff.

And naturally, when the campus does in fact win Nichols back, he will have all the more reason to listen to campus organizers' demands, as they are the ones who literally saved his job.

Update: I just got forwarded the 5 demands agreed upon by the campus - and it looks like individual campus groups may be issuing different/more radical demands. Just by the wording, it looks like faculty members may have had a disproportionate influence on the drafting (when it comes to structural demands, professors generally like to push for things like "transparency," while students are more likely to push for more comprehensive changes).

Over the past three years, the College of William & Mary has blossomed with increasing civic involvement, expanding academic horizons, and deepening cultural breadth.  As students, staff, faculty, and alumni, we are sincerely wed to the direction of this storied institution.  A lack of transparency at the highest level regarding recent personnel decisions ignores our profound desire for engagement. 

Our love of the College drives us to ask for answers, explanation, and course.  The events of the previous days have illuminated that the majority of students, staff, faculty, and alumni of the College of William & Mary have been denied a voice. 

We, William & Mary, demand: 

1. Full disclosure regarding the decision not to renew Nichol’s contract, including any vote that took place, and how that vote was influenced.

2. A review of the process by which the decision was made, in secret, to dismiss Nichol and appoint an interim President.

3. Rector Powell and the Board of Visitors to come to campus to explain their actions and answer student, staff, and faculty questions.  We do not find Rector Powell’s explanation Tuesday morning to be sufficient.

4. A strong public re-affirmation from the Board of Visitors that the process to choose our next President will fully incorporate student, staff, and faculty voices and concerns in a transparent fashion.

5. That the staff of the College, like the students and faculty, have a permanent position on the Board of Visitors.

6. A commitment to continuing the diversity initiatives and dedication to academic freedom and free speech championed by Gene Nichol.

William & Mary students, going forward, would do well to learn from the example of their brothers and sisters at Gallaudet University, who have twice overruled their Trustees' picks for President.