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Written by Louis Weisberg, Staff writer
Jun 3, 2010
At a May 11 meeting, students called on Marquette University president Fr. Robert A. Wild (left) to resign. – Photo: Dan Zaitz
Marquette students and faculty have stepped up their effort to get university officials to apologize to lesbian scholar Jodi O’Brien and reinstate their offer to make her dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
After O’Brien signed a contract for the position, Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki and other church leaders complained that her academic writings on lesbian sexuality, gay partnership and the nature of the family were inconsistent with the school’s Roman Catholic mission. University president Fr. Robert A. Wild subsequently rescinded the offer, setting off a wave of protests by students and an outcry from faculty members.
In a full-page ad that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 24, dozens of faculty members at Marquette and Seattle University, a Jesuit school where O’Brien has taught for 15 years, condemned Marquette’s decision and called on administrators to apologize and re-extend the job offer. Faculty members from many departments of both universities signed the letter.
Students have staged several protests and are pursuing both legal and academic actions against the university. Graduate philosophy student Trevor Smith, a spokesperson for the May 6th Movement, said the group is looking into whether Marquette violated federal and state non-discrimination statutes, which would make the university ineligible for government grants. The May 6th Movement is an informal coalition of undergraduate and graduate students named for the day Marquette announced it was rescinding the offer to O’Brien.
“Marquette takes millions in federal funding and takes state money,” Smith said. “Marquette desperately depends on federal and state funding but wants to opt out of full disclosure, academic freedom and anti-gay discrimination.”
Smith said his group is consulting with Lambda Legal, the Association of University Professors, the ACLU and other organizations on how to handle the matter.
The May 6th Movement has asked 20 academic professional societies to censure Marquette, which would marginalize the institution. “Depending on the organization, this can range from an unofficial blacklisting so (Marquette) couldn’t host association events, or it could mean certain speakers would not appear on campus and jobs available at Marquette wouldn’t be posted by the association,” Smith said. He said censuring could also prevent Marquette scholars from being published in academic journals and prevent the university from hosting academic events.
Action by the Wisconsin Arts Board could be a harbinger of things to come for Marquette. The board recently voted unanimously to defer action on a grant for the university’s Haggerty Museum of Art due to “serious questions suggesting discriminatory hiring practices at Marquette” (see “letters” in this issue).
After several requests for meetings with Wild were turned down, members of the May 6th Movement finally met with him May 19 and asked him to apologize for discriminating against O’Brien and to re-extend her job offer. “We handed him an apology and asked him to sign it, but he refused,” Smith said. “He said, ‘I have not discriminated and I cannot sign this letter.’”
Smith said he and fellow students who attended the meeting felt talked down to “in a heavy paternalistic way.”
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is considering a formal investigation into the handling of O’Brien’s job offer, said Nancy Snow, professor of philosophy at Marquette. AAUP has censured the university in the past for stripping a professor of tenure when he left the Jesuit order.
“It was only since I’ve been at Marquette that we’ve had that censure lifted,” said Snow, who helped plan the ad that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Faculty had to work with AAUP to convince them that was no longer the situation.”
Marquette also has been criticized by the Higher Learning Commission/North Central Accreditation Association for its lack of diversity.
Snow said the current situation amounts to “much worse than egg on your face. It’s an intrusion on academic freedom here, and that’s at the heart of academia.”
“I have received e-mails from parents and alumni who don’t know if they want to send their kids here because of this,” Snow said. “One woman told me her daughter is looking at Marquette. Well, what’s she supposed to tell her daughter now?”
