Rain and the Rhinoceros

As many of you probably know, a controversy has recently broke out at my school, the University of St. Thomas, over a decision to not invite Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at the annual PeaceJam event. Evidently, the St. Thomas administration thought Tutu was too controversial because of his statements in opposition to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Our Justice and Peace program has been at the center of the controversy. In fact, the faculty member who initially got Tutu to agree to coming, recently lost his grant to continue working for the university. And, of course, the Director of the program lost her job over the controversy.All of this is strange considering that I saw Ann Coulter speak a couple years ago at St. Thomas. In her speech before a full auditorium, Coulter made dozens of racists comments. Unfortunately, she received a standing ovation.As we anticipated, last week the City Pages featured an article on the controversy. Many other newspapers from around the country and the world picked up the story. It was one week ago today that the piece was published in the City Pages and I just received an email from the president of St. Thomas addressed to faculty, staff, and students. In the email, Dennis Dease says that he had made a mistake and decided to change his mind on the issue. In the letter he extends an invitation to Tutu to speak at a forum that addresses the Israel-Palestine conflict. He explained that two Jewish groups have already agreed to sponsor the event.As you might have guessed, this controversy has stirred things up a bit at St. Thomas, but not as much as one might have hoped. Of course, all the faculty from the theology department and Justice and Peace program are freaking out, but the student body doesn’t seem too upset by the whole thing. Yesterday, during the lunch hour, a few people were protesting and holding up a sign that said, “Let Tutu Speak.” I spoke with my friend and legendary activist Marv Davidov about it. He was determined to get the New York Times to cover the story. As I lit his cigarette for him he said, “They thought this thing would blow right over, but they were wrong, cause we’re not going to let it.” If you know Marv, you know that he’s serious.Well, evidently, it didn’t take too long for the University to reverse its decision about Tutu. Although I am happy to hear that Dease recognizes his mistake, I am not confident that this really marks a significant change in the administration. The larger issues have to do with the future of a fairly radical Justice and Peace program at aconservative Roman Catholic institution. Unfortunately, it appears that the future of the program is in jeopardy. As a graduate of the university and someone who was actively involved in the Justice and Peace program, I am deeply saddened by all of this, but I’ve been trained to not go down without a fight.