During my gathering of signatures on the “Concerned Faculty’s” petition for a University Assembly meeting, I discovered that almost everyone on the Voting Faculty at the University of Oregon is opposed to America’s impending invasion of Iraq. Some members, however, declined to sign the petition because they thought it inappropriate for the University to take positions on social issues.
I respectfully disagree with them and with University President Dave Frohnmayer, who has announced the same view.
Our University has taken, and should continue to take, positions on issues that are central to its mission and/or its survival. For
instance, under Frohnmayer’s leadership, the University has maintained it’s outspoken
position on several “hot-button” social or
political issues.
Every time the University advertises its stand in support of diversity in matters of race, ethnicity or individual sexuality, it is taking a political position. The University takes such positions with conviction despite the fact that there are many Americans who are opposed to liberal social views. It has done so because to do otherwise would compromise its mission as an educational institution.
Does the impending invasion of Iraq constitute a threat to the mission of the University? Indeed, it poses the gravest threats imaginable.
1. Our University, like all others, can carry out its mission only in a free, open, democratic society, like the one envisioned by the framers of our Constitution, which is all that protects our rights of free speech, assembly, press and association. We have all seen how the State of Perpetual War declared by the present federal administration is resulting in the erosion of those rights.
2. Our mission to educate Oregonians can be successful only if there are sufficient funds to support that mission. The unwarranted investment of Oregon’s treasure to the support of an overstuffed military establishment is fast leading us to a poverty that threatens our survival as a society, not to mention our ability to provide an education, both K-12 and University, for our young people.
If the United States were imminently threatened by Iraq, the University would, of course, support the war, either outspokenly or by its silence. In the absence of that justification, however, the University must stand opposed to an unconstitutional war of aggression, which will destroy its very soul.
If we do not, who will?