Rumsfeld as Fellow Draws a Protest at Stanford
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
Published: September 21, 2007
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 19 — The appointment of Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution is drawing fierce protests from faculty members and students at Stanford University and is threatening to rekindle tensions between the institution, a conservative research body, and the more liberal campus.
Some 2,100 professors, staff members, students and alumni have signed an online petition protesting Mr. Rumsfeld’s appointment, which will involve advising a task force on ideology and terrorism. Faculty members say he should not have been offered the post because of his role in the Bush administration’s prosecution of the Iraq war.
“We view the appointment as fundamentally incompatible with the ethical values of truthfulness, tolerance, disinterested enquiry, respect for national and international laws and care for the opinions, property and lives of others to which Stanford is inalienably committed,” the petition reads.
Philip G. Zimbardo, emeritus professor of psychology, explained his objection to Mr. Rumsfeld’s appointment as he rushed across campus to teach a class. “It is unacceptable to have someone who represents the values that Rumsfeld has portrayed, in an academic setting,” Dr. Zimbardo said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/education/21stanford.html?ref=washington