Faculty 'strongly disapproves' of Monnin award revocation

Faculty members officially added their voices to the controversy surrounding the revocation of Liz Monnin's Senior Award by passing a resolution at the Arts, Sciences & Engineering (AS&E) faculty meeting yesterday.

"Be it resolved that the faculty of AS&E strongly disapproves of the decision of Tufts' Alumni Association to revoke its Senior Award to Elizabeth Monnin," read the resolution, which passed unanimously.

The motion was brought before the faculty by Economics Professor David Garman, who said he wanted to give faculty a chance to discuss the "slippery slope" of revoking awards. "If we decide to start revoking awards or undoing decisions, I think there would be no end of it," he said.

Monnin received notification that she would receive a Senior Award in late February, but a letter from the Alumni Association reversed the decision just three weeks later as a result of what it called her "inappropriate and offensive" behavior during the Fares lecture.

The debate at the faculty meeting yesterday was short but spirited and resulted in a small alteration of Garman's original resolution, which called for the faculty to "disassociate itself" from the decision of the Alumni Association.

"Dissociation only takes us so far," one professor said, calling for a stronger statement. Other professors pointed out that since the Alumni Association is an independent body, the faculty is already dissociated from the decision.

Other attendees seemed to agree, and Professor Daniel Dennett suggested amending the motion to change its wording. "I would prefer saying we are dismayed and disappointed in our own alumni," Dennett said. Dennett's suggested amendment, which used the "strongly disapproves of" wording, was passed quickly and unanimously.

A few professors expressed reservations about the motion, however, citing their lack of knowledge about the Alumni Association's selection process for the award. "I think it was a stupid decision to revoke the award... but I think they were well within their rights," Professor Gilbert Metcalf said.

But faculty members still sought to formally distance themselves from the Alumni Association's decision. "The example here is not one we'd want our students to follow," Professor Steve Marrone said.

Despite the faculty's unanimous support for the resolution, many professors seemed troubled that the motion was brought up in the last ten minutes of the meeting, leaving little time for discussion. During the debate, the crowd thinned as professors left to teach classes.

"I wish that we had had longer to talk about it because it wasn't just the resolution itself, it was the opportunity... for people to raise different opinions about it," Garman said.

Still, Garman seemed pleased with the faculty meeting's outcome. "I expect most Tufts alumni to understand that this is an issue of principle," he said. "When there's a principle at stake, the first thing you want to do is try to honor the principle, and then worry about the repercussions later."