To the Editor:
We would like to express our disappointment with the administration’s choice to honor Richard Boucher, the deputy director of the White House Office for Faith-Based Initiatives, at the opening of the new Center for Faith and Public Life. Our administration should not be taking sides in the political arena. This action expresses that the student body supports the Bush White House’s agenda in the areas of faith based action and justice, which is untrue. The Bush administration started a war based on lies, which has caused the death of more than 2,000 soldiers. It continuously panders to the interests of big corporations over the interests of the American people. Not only that, but it has created policies that only hurt the poor and elderly. The mission of Fairfield is our commitment to the Catholic and Jesuit faith that does justice. Does the Bush administration represent our mission here at Fairfield? Do we as students want to be associated with a school that supports this hypocrisy? I think this action to honor Richard Boucher not only goes against our mission, but also limits the free speech of the opposition on this campus. Without the consent of us as students, the faculty projected this image of supporting the administration in an ad in The New York Times, proclaiming the achievement of having Richard Boucher at the opening. Last year, the administration stopped a student group from holding an event because they felt that the students’ interests had been hijacked by an outside group. Now, we feel that the University has put itself in a position to have its interests hijacked by an outside presence. If Richard Boucher is honored, not only will Fairfield project an image of itself completely contradictory to the Jesuit mission of social justice, but also it will effectively endorse one of the most divisive presidential administrations in American history. Such an action will have serious ramifications, some of which include the alienation of a significant number of students, as well as a portrayal of the school as one-sided, which may lead to our university losing credibility in the future. We urge the administration to consider these and other consequences, and hope that whomever they choose to honor at Monday’s ceremony upholds the university’s mission and at the same time is not representative of such a divisive entity.
Sincerely, The College Democrats
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