Alumni Letter Defends Susan Collins ’75, Encourages Free Expression

The following petition was forwarded to The Hill News and published upon the request of alumnus Kevin Arquit ’75. We thank Mr. Arquit for reaching out and encourage all to join the discussion.  

Dear President Fox and Board of Trustees,

As fellow alumni at St. Lawrence University, and on behalf of many of us who were also classmates of Senator Susan Collins, we remember and continue to respect her as a serious-minded, intelligent, dedicated individual, full of kindness and character. We felt vicarious pride when our university, based on faculty support, bestowed two honorary doctorates for her lifetime of public service. We agreed with members of the SLU community who lauded her 2017 commencement address calling for students to use their critical thinking skills, understand and respect views that differ from their own and to restore civil discourse to our national debates.

When Senator Collins received her most recent honorary degree, she was commended for her independent and reasoned thinking for crossing GOP party lines to stand for the “greater good” and to vote, among other decisions, against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Yet, now that she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as Supreme Court justice, a self-selected group of faculty has asked SLU to rescind Susan Collins’s degree as a symbolic act of punishment. Letters from a faction of alumni and faculty claim Senator Collins “lacks the integrity and commitment to justice that we expect from a SLU body.” They also besmirch her character, “unprincipled actions,” discredit her womanhood, convict her as someone who enables “rape culture,” and conclude “she’s deviated from the path that makes us proud Laurentians.”

We are writing—as classmates who know Senator Collins personally as well as on behalf of many other alumni of all ages, genders and backgrounds— to express our agreement with the University’s position not to revoke her honorary degree, but instead to encourage free expression of ideas. We reject punishment as a consequence for holding views divergent from those of a self-selected group of alumni and faculty, the latter of whom, remarkably, assume the mantle of representing the views of alumni generally.

As proud alumni, many of us remember the values of our alma mater differently. Susan Collins was educated at St. Lawrence at a time when the Vietnam War was winding down and students across the country, inspired by the Free Speech Movement, fought for academic freedom and the right for all voices to be heard on campus. Opinions about the state of our country were fraught with emotion, but classrooms in those days were “safe zones” where students aired their views instead of being protected from ones divergent from their own. Professors did not demand groupthink ideology or threaten retribution if students expressed different ideas; instead they educated us in the art of dialectical reasoning and of informed, critical thinking. They did not teach us what to think; they taught us how to think for ourselves.  In those years, while classrooms were hotbeds of dissent and discussion, a level of mutual respect, tolerance for diversity of thought and a level of civility kept passions from getting out of hand

The faculty letter draws conclusions in direct contradiction to the very Statement of Values on which it purports to rely. The irony of proclaiming the essential need for tolerance in ideas, while using it as a weapon of intolerance is remarkable in its hypocrisy. The signatory faculty should take the time to review what are the guiding principles they have historically insisted upon, and heed them now. Free speech must be a two-way street, and it isn’t a noble pursuit if you only recognize it for those who support your position.

It is a major disappointment that the faculty signatories, instead of advancing their own Statement of Values, chose to fan the flames with an incendiary letter that runs against everything Senator Collins has stood for in her lifetime of public service. Whether we went to school 40 years ago or recently graduated, we are concerned the message these teachers are sending to their students is: agree with our political point of view or we will destroy your budding reputations and punish you with consequences.  The relationship between students and faculty, with the latter having the power to determine individual grades, is hardly symmetrical.

We are aware there are many areas of grievance at a school like St. Lawrence. We agree with the eloquent and sympathetic acknowledgement Susan Collins made on the Senate floor about the egregious nature of sexual assault and her recognition of the courage of victims to come forward. We support her record as a champion of women’s rights as well as her respect for the sanctity of our Constitutional system of justice—including due process, presumption of innocence and her own First Amendment rights.

We worry generally about the future of liberal arts colleges, and whether the hypocrisy and partisanship inherent in the faculty letter will cause parents and students to question further, the relevance of such an education. We feel sad that a person like Senator Collins, who has done her best to do what is right, has been so wrongly treated. For those who disagree, the proper outlet is the ballot box, not character assassination or the other consequences of retribution Senator Collins has had to endure.

Sincerely,

[signed 136 SLU alumni – as of Oct. 25, 2018]

Ellen Flagg Affel ’75

John Affel ’74

Kevin Arquit ’75

Bob Barnard ’74

Susan Ackerman Barnard ’74

Teb Barnard ’74

George Barrett ’12

James Benedict ’71

Whit Benedict ’89

Carol Bishco ’74

Igor Bishco  ’74

Jeff Brainard ’76

Roger Brandt ’80

Dennis Bristol ’75

John Bucher ’77

Karen Gardner Cakebread ’75

Mike Cashal ’84

Julie Chase ’13

Martha Chase ’15

Oliver Christie ’13

George Christie ’13

John Ash Clark ’69

Donna Reid Clark ’69

Tim Cohan ’75

Christy Clark Collins ’92

John Collins ’92

William Connelly ’76

Charlie R. Daugherty ’75

Charles T. Daugherty ’12

Karen Sivy Daugherty ’75

Jim Davenport ’77

John Davis ’74

Jim Deming ’77

Oliver Dennis ’13

Jeffery Dominick ’87

Peter Doering ’77

Colin Dowd ’16

Willy Drake ’88

Charlie Dupree ’16

Molly Dupree ’16

Sue Felber Durkin ’82

Tom Durkin ’82

Bill Durkin ’76

Penn Egbert ’99

Matt Feeney ’86

Duran Fields ’75

Brendan Fitzpatrick ’12

Sam Fulmer ’12

Robert Gang ’76

Meg Gerstner ’75

Peter Getz ’81

Michael Giordano ’86

John Greenwood ’75

Martha MacCallum Gregory ’86

Spike Hayden ’13

Kathleen Hersam ’75

Michael Hickey ’13

Tom Hoffman ’75

Charles V Howe ’04

Sam Hughes ’12

Mike Husar ’75

Elizabeth Jay ’14

Susan Waugh Jay ’83

Peter Jette ’88

Nancy Piper Jenks ’75

Cary Regan Keigher ’85

Michael Keigher ’85

Bob Kirschner ’74

John Kjorlien ’73

Bob Kmetz ’75

Janet Olchowski Kmetz ’75

Alison Rogers Knight ’91

Jim Knight ’91

Daniel Lee ’05

Don Kyle ’77

Andrew Lane ’14

Hugh Lappe ’76

Lou Leathersich ’74

Ken Ludwig ’74

Dixon Mallory ’12

Tom Markert ’81

David MaClaren ’11

Joel MacClaren ’77

Darcy Rieman MacClaren ’78

Amy Winklepleck McNamara ’75

Mick MacLaverty ’12

Jocelyn White Martin ’75

Nancy McLaren ’75

Susan Hunt McDowell ’85

Kevin McGrath ’76

Victoria Brooks Melly ’85

Brendon Miller ’12

Andrew Reiley O’Connor ’12

Tom O’Connor ’75

Whitney Orawiec ’09

Greg Pappas ’77

Corey Parent ’12

Jennifer Pascal ’87

Murray Platt ’78

Jeff Pierce ’76

John Reinman ’77

Brad Rhine ’89

Rachael Keigher Rhine ’89

Bill Samuels ’76

Michael Sandinista ’00

Charles Scammell ’75

Peter Schibli ’90

Greg Sharlow ’78

Zizi McCabe Schirf ’75

Jeff Service ’73

Amy Jay Sperrazza ’10

Greg Sperrazza ’10

Jeff Stannard ’75

Christina Economou Stoop ’91

Bill Stoops ’85

Jessica Sweeny ’09

Larry Regan ’81

Hannah Williams Torney ’12

Robert Torney ’11

Jeff Tingley ’77

Gary Webb ’73

William Weston ’75

Julie Willis ’79

Barbara McFadyen Young ’75

George Zurenda ’75