College Flunks Comportment
With its alternative approach to learning, The Evergreen State College near Olympia has long been the most free-spirited of Washington’s public colleges and universities - a place where the ‘60s never end.
“Evergreen is a unique institution in that it welcomes controversial points of view,” is the way Art Constantino, vice president for student affairs, understated it.
The most controversial point of view to be welcomed recently was the taped 13-minute address by convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal at last Friday’s commencement program.
Even many of Evergreen’s progressive-minded students - not to mention Washington Gov. Gary Locke and a lot of law enforcement officers - took offense. They should. Jamal, a former radio journalist and Black Panther, is on death row in Pennsylvania for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
Jamal insists he was framed and he has attracted a brigade of celebrated supporters, from Harvard law professor Derrick Bell to actor Paul Newman. He’s had less luck in the courts, which have rejected his appeals.
“I don’t know if he’s guilty or not,” said one of the students who resented their celebration’s being used as a political platform. “That’s not the issue. This is the wrong place for that argument.”
Even when Locke canceled as keynote speaker over Jamal’s absentee involvement, Evergreen officials asserted a high purpose for sticking to their guns.
Jamal’s commentary is part of an ongoing conversation about the death penalty and the impact of racism and poverty on social justice, declared President Jane Jervis.
“It is through the clash and argument and resolution of different perspectives that creativity and tough-minded critical thinking can emerge,” she said.
True enough. However, a perspective that was excluded from last Friday’s clashing was that of Maureen Faulkner, the slain officer’s wife. Evergreen denied her request for a spot on the program.
And notwithstanding Jervis’ firm and eloquent defense of Jamal’s inclusion, Evergreen plans to revise the committee-based process by which commencement speakers are chosen. The new process will be more attentive to mainstream concerns, officials have said.
That’s a reasonable move. Colleges like Evergreen have ample opportunities to stimulate critical thinking without turning commencement ceremonies into needlessly divisive and inflammatory spectacles.
If Evergreen State College wants to promote open and vigorous public discussion about crime, violence, racism and social injustice, that’s commendable.
It’s the choice of when, where and how to do it that constituted an embarrassing blunder in this case.