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Read statements, articles and letters of opposition from students, faculty, staff & alumni.
See what campus groups have passed resolutions.
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Campus groups that have passed resolutions in favor of revoking Andrew Card's degree:
Student/Faculty governments and Unions
The Graduate Student Government
The Student Government Association
The Graduate Employee Organization
The Delegate Council of the Professional Staff Union (PSU/MTA)
The Massachusetts Society of Professors
Departaments
Antrhopology (Read letter sent to UMass president, Chancellor, & Board of Trustees)
Social Thought and Political Economy
Women's Studies
Departamental Graduate Student Organizations
The Sociology Graduate Student Association (SGSA)
The Political Science Graduate Student Association (PSGSA)
The Labor Center Caucus
Graduate and Undergraduate Student Groups
The UMass Anti-War Coalition
The Campus Anti-War Outreach Caucus
The Palestine Action Coalition
The Radical Student Union
UMass Amherst Students for Peace
Latin American Graduate Student Organization
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Press Release Sent by GEO (Graduate Emploee Organization) and GSS (Graduate Student Senate) - click here to read it.
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Letter to the Editor by longtime local activist Frances Crowe who was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters by UMass in recognition of "distinguished attainments" in 1996.
Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, May 18 2007
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Resolution passed by the Delegate Council of the PSU endorsing the graduate students call to revoke Andrew Card’s degree:
"We, the Delegate Council of the Professional Staff Union (PSU/MTA) support graduate students of the University of Massachusetts in respectfully requesting that all relevant University administrators and administrative bodies, including but not limited to University President, the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor, and the Dean of the Graduate School, immediately revoke the offer of an honorary degree to Andrew H. Card, Jr., former White House Chief of Staff from 2000 to 2006 and head of the White House Iraq Group, as Card is not eligible for a degree according to University of Massachusetts Policy Doc. T93-060, "Policy on Awarding Honorary Degrees," which makes “only persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts” eligible for such an honorary degree."
Passed by the PSU/MTA Delegate Council
May 16, 2007
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Statement from graduating student Katherine Walker, Department of Sociology
"If the administration ruins my doctoral graduation by giving that man an honorary degree, it will be a cold day in hell before I donate any money to this school and I will personally organize a drive to get other alums to withhold contributions to the school."
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Both the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) and the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) at UMass Amherst have passed resolutions in favor of revoking Andrew Card's honorary degree.
"[We support] graduate students of the University of Massachusetts in respectfully requesting that all relevant University administrators and administrative bodies, including but not limited to University President, the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor, and the Dean of the Graduate School, immediately revoke the offer of an honorary degree to Andrew H. Card, Jr., former White House Chief of Staff from 2000 to 2006 and head of the White House Iraq Group, as Card is not eligible for a degree according to University of Massachusetts Policy Doc. T93-060, "Policy on Awarding Honorary Degrees," which makes “only persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts” eligible for such an honorary degree."
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Statement from UMass student Jeffrey M. Felberbaum
As a student taking a semester to study abroad, I was saddened and deeply troubled to learn of UMass's intention to award Andy Card an Honorary Degree at this years commencement.
Mr. Card, and the administration he worked for, are examples of all that is wrong with our country.
As I meet people here (I am currently in Milan, Italy), I am consistently embarrassed to let people
know where I am from. Although I appreciate the many privileges I have as a U.S. citizen, I cannot say that I look forward to returning to the ongoing travesty of justice that the administration Mr. Card so adroitly supported during his tenure continues to perpetrate--both domestically and in every corner of the globe.
Our nation is envied and despised by the very same people I meet here every day. People like Mr. Card
are the reason we are so desperately disliked.
I cannot state my opposition to him being so honored by our university strongly enough. Please don't follow through with this plan.
Very Truly Yours,
Jeffrey M. Felberbaum
Student, University of Massachusetts
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The Collegians unsigned editorial about the issue:
On the Card controversy
Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Daily Collegian Editorial Board
Daily Collegian, 5/10/07
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Opinion piece by UMass student Andrew Freeman
Unite and rescind
By: Andrew Freeman, The Daily Collegian, 5/9/07
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Statement from graduating student Nancy Haque, Center of Public Policy and Administration - 5/7/07
My name is Nancy Haque and I am a graduate student from the Center of Public Policy and Administration. I am writing to express my protest at the awarding of an Honorary Degree to Andrew Card. As a student of public policy, I came into my program with a belief that good public policy can help better the lives of everyday, working people. Good public policy can ensure that there is health care for all, adequate funding for schools and roads, a social safety net to help those in need. What Andrew Card represents is the flip side of public policy, a man who speaks for an administration which is responsible for the loss of hundred of thousands of lives in Iraq. An administration that did too little, too late in the face of the domestic disaster of Hurricane Katrina.
I urge you to withdraw your offer of an honorary degree to Andrew Card. This graduation is an event for those of us who have worked hard to earn them and our families. I would be saddened to tell my parents that they cannot attend my graduation because I am boycotting it. I left my career in Washington, DC to come and earn my graduate degree, if Mr. Card would like a degree; I suggest he does the same.
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Editorial by graduate student Justin Jackson, who is graduating this semester.
Save our commencement
Daily Collegian, 5/7/07
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Statement from the Sociology Graduate Student Association (SGSA) at UMass, May 9, 2007
The Sociology Graduate Student Association of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst respectfully requests that all relevant University administrators and administrative bodies, including but not limited to the University President, the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor, and the Dean of the Graduate School, immediately revoke the offer of an honorary degree to Andrew H. Card, Jr., former White House Chief of Staff from 2000 to 2006 and head of the White House Iraq Group, as Card is not eligible for a degree according to University of Massachusetts Policy Doc. T93-060, "Policy on Awarding Honorary Degrees," which makes "only persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts" eligible for such an honorary degree.
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The Political Science Graduate Student Association Endorses the following:
"Political Science Graduate Student Association (PSGSA) supports graduate students of the University of Massachusetts in respectfully requesting that all relevant University administrators and administrative bodies, including but not limited to University President, the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor, and the Dean of the Graduate School, immediately revoke the offer of an honorary degree to Andrew H. Card, Jr., former White House Chief of Staff from 2000 to 2006 and head of the White House Iraq Group, as Card is not eligible for a degree according to University of Massachusetts Policy Doc. T93- 060, "Policy on Awarding Honorary Degrees," which makes "only persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts" eligible for such an honorary degree."
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Editorial by student Caroline Moretti
Daily Collegian, 5/7/07
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Statement by Professor Jennifer Lundquist, Department of Sociology (UMass, Amherst)
“I'm in ‘shock and awe’ that the UMass administration and board of trustees have chosen to designate one of the leading Iraq War policy directors as deserving of an honorable graduate degree from our institution. The UMass policy designates honorable degree recipients as: ‘only persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts.’ Any review of Card’s morally bankrupt influence on invading Iraq, as well as his directorship of Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Condi Rice in the White House Iraq Group should make it clear that he hardly fits such a profile. Had he been an actual student at UMass he would have been kicked out for myriad honors violations long before ever making it to convocation.”
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Letter sent by UMass Amherst Alumnus Panayiotis T. Manolakos to the Daily Collegian and Hampshire Gazette:
To the editor:
The decision by UMASS' bureaucrats and board of directors to award an honorary degree to Mr. Andrew H. Card, Jr. ought to be immediately rescinded in no uncertain terms. He should also not be allowed to attend this years' graduate and undergraduate convocations. The chicanery of Mr. Card, which was immortalized in his sentiment that "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August" (a comment that refers to the campaign to convince the public of the necessity of a war with Iraq), disqualifies him from such an honor.
Mr. Card lacks honor and integrity. The idea that the US government ought to treat voters no differently than an audience targeted by a corporation during a marketing drive is contemptuous and plainly contradicts the principles of democracy. Voters ought not be treated as consumers by their government; they are citizens, and the decision to go to war is not comparable to puzzling over whether to purchase a Kia or a Honda. To embrace such undemocratic sentiment warrants scorn, punishment, and not commemoration with an honorary degree.
UMASS alumnus (B.A., M.S.)
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Statement from the UMass Anti-War Coalition, May 2007
The UMass Anti-War Coalition, a Graduate Student Organization at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, supports UMass graduate students in respectfully requesting that all relevant University administrators and administrative bodies, including but not limited to University President, the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor, and the Dean of the Graduate School, immediately revoke the offer of an honorary degree to Andrew H. Card, Jr., White House Chief of Staff from 2000 to 2006. According to University of Massachusetts Policy Doc. T93-060, "Policy on Awarding Honorary Degrees," the university will award degrees only to "persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts." In organizing the White House Iraq Group, Andrew Card bears significant responsibility for manipulating intelligence and misleading the U.S. public into a war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions of people. He is thus clearly ineligible to receive an honorary degree from UMass.
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Statement by The Campus Anti-War Outreach Caucus
The Campus Anti-War Outreach Caucus (CAWOC) supports graduate students of the University of Massachusetts in respectfully requesting that all relevant University administrators and administrative bodies, including but not limited to University President, the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor, and the Dean of the Graduate School, immediately revoke the offer of an honorary degree to Andrew H. Card, Jr., former White House Chief of Staff from 2000 to 2006 and head of the White House Iraq Group, as Card is not eligible for a degree according to University of Massachusetts Policy Doc. T93-060, "Policy on Awarding Honorary Degrees," which makes "only persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts" eligible for such an honorary degree. The members of CAWOC are embarassed that as such a rich nation we don't have free education yet can our university can afford to honor Andrew Card, a war criminal who has organized deception claiming over 600,000 Iraqi lives and thousands of American lives. In addition,we express our support for the graduate students who deserve a commencement which honors their hard work and accomplishments.
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Letter Sent by John R. Stifler (Economics Department) to Stephen Tocco (UMass Board of Trustees)
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A degree of mystery at UMass
By JOHN STIFLER, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, Published on: Saturday May 19, 2007
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Paula Chakravartty (Dept of Communication) and John Stifler (Dept of Economics) on WHMP’s "The Morning News Watch Extra" with Bill Dwight. Tuesday, May 22, 2007 (click here to Listen)
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It’s Political not Personal: Why Andrew Card Dishonors UMass even though he might be a “Nice Guy
Op-ed by Paula Chakravartty (Assistant Professor, Department of Communication) & Stephanie Luce (Associate Professor, Labor Studies), May 16, 2007, The Hampshire Gazette
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Letter of Support from faculty members at the University of Vermont
May 2007
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