|
|
 |
 |
In
the marketplace of ideas, UW-Green Bay is at the center Greetings from UW-Green Bay, home of “Connecting learning to life!” Some things didn’t happen last week. That they didn’t was impressive and gratifying. If you missed it — which is a certainty, because none of the following actually came to pass — I’ll fill you in: • The sky didn’t fall when a UW-Green Bay student group announced it had booked a certain activist filmmaker to come to campus for a pair of appearances later this month. • No fistfights erupted when Bush and Kerry partisans gathered with each other and undecided fellow students in the Phoenix Room to watch the first presidential debate. • No one seriously questioned the propriety of this Monday’s scheduled pro-and-con gay marriage debate, when two prominent national spokespeople — for and against — will bring their traveling argument to campus, again at the invitation of our students. Equanimity today is no guarantee of peace tomorrow, of course. We fully anticipate that passions will sometimes swirl at and around programs to be held on campus, programs for which the word “controversial” will be an apt descriptor. That’s normal in a society dedicated to healthy public debate. What is both impressive and gratifying today is not the relative quiet before the perhaps-inevitable storm, but that UW-Green Bay is receiving genuine support for living up to its responsibilities as a public institution. You need to know that. When I received word that the student Good Times Programming Board had finalized arrangements to bring to campus Michael Moore — arguably the most prominent and polarizing figure ever to speak at UWGB — I took the opportunity to draft a note to close University friends and board members. I wanted to alert them that the experience at other campuses has been that, while Mr. Moore’s appearances have come off without great incident, campaigns attacking the perceived sponsors have also taken place. As I said to these friends, we have a “teachable moment” at hand. UW-Green Bay will not duck the potential controversy. Indeed, we would be denying the citizens of this region the full benefit of having a “real” university were we to avoid the controversial. And, although the University did not (and should not) have a say in this choice by our students on programming using only ticket revenue and their own funds (no tax dollars), we will stand behind the students’ decision. That’s roughly what I said. What I heard in return, almost without exception, was: “We’re with you.” |
|
|
|
| TO NEXT PAGE |
|
|
