The O’Reilly Factor recently went visiting Dr. Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of the University of Syracuse, and former Chancellor of the University of Illinois. At issue is whether business professor Dr. Boyce Watkins, and his comments regarding NPR’s editor Juan Willams, who in public, supported Bill O’Reilly in an earlier controversy, were appropriate coming from the forum of Syracuse University.
O’Reilly’s contention? That such comments, if made by a white professor, would have resulted in, at a minimum, a mandatory appearance before a professional review board for appropriate academic behavoir and academic standards of integrity, and more likely dismissal from the faculty. Clearly, O’Reilly argues, Dr. Watkins is pursuing a race based agenda under the guise of academic freedom.
For those of us in Champaign, the home of the University of Illinois, this is not a surprise. It is a well known tenet that organizations are informed by the attitudes of the senior leadership. Nancy Cantor’s attitudes are well known here, and frankly it was Syracuse’s loss and our gain when she moved on. People are still trying to patch up the disaster that was her administration.
It was, of course, the Cantor administration which supported the demise of the “Chief” and legitimized the small minority voice who found racism in the University’s athletic symbol. Moreover, Cantor’s attitude became evident when a group of protestors invaded the Swanland Administration Building and prevented employees from accessing the building. Rather than promote the security and safety of the staff, Cantor legitimized the group by decending from her office and sitting down with the protestors for discussions of racism, while employees, unable to get to their work place, or trapped inside, were forced to wait.
The issue gave the NCAA, always on the look-out for ways to punish the University of Illinois, a means to sanction Illinois for “hostile and abusive” practices, even though the Florida Seminoles got a free ride. The University, however, will carry on, without its halftime dance and mascot; and thankfully without Nancy Cantor.
Still, watching Dr. Cantor, trotting and attempting to duck The Factor’s representative’s questions was a highlight of Memorial Day.
May 31, 2008 at 12:18 am
Wow APO
It looks like we’re on a roll today.
Guess what? If you weren’t invaded, colonised, subjected to arbitrary changes in law and subjected to horrendous bigotry then maybe having somebody from a different race dress up for the edification of a largely non-partisan crowd might have some entertainment value.
BUT your native population was invaded, colonised, subjected to arb..etc. And when those who prosecuted these atrocities decided it would be a blast to watch a performance to the joy of the largely victorious descendents of the perpetrators you get all peevish when folk might find this objectionable.
White guys blackened their faces not long ago, oh how quaint. Jews have been parodied throughout Europe since the death of christ.. but where is their sense of humour?
It’s one thing for a black american to call himself a nigger, it is quite another for a white man to put on boot polish and do the same. So no this is not a straw man as per your previous post, this is a real insult to feelings and a gross whitewashing of reality. Somehow you seem to think that lieing and genocide in previous years can be erased by calling a white guy in a chief’s “costume” a knight in shining armour. Then you get all pissy because the descendants of those subjected to don’t see it that way.
The only thing you got right was that Florida should have had its arse kicked too.
May 31, 2008 at 12:21 am
PS it really is a good test of any theory that if you find yourself agreeing with Bill O you should go back and check all the details. Not bitchy or crappy, but based on experience.
June 2, 2008 at 8:40 am
Well, I have actually taken a pretty neutral stance towards the “Chief” issue. My biggest gripe is with the process.
The NCAA was way out of bounds in their action. The U of I board of directors went around several referendums which were 80/20 in favor of the Chief. If we live in a democracy, then we live in a democracy. Cantor’s dealing with the Swanland takeover was nothing short of disgusting. Every thing about the issue was misused by one side or the other.
My wife is a Seneca indian so I have heard many sides to the issue. One point that seldom gets reported is that many natives are in favor of such things because they keep alive some form of native awareness and culture. Yes the Westward expansion Indian policy was flawed. But you should sometimes hear the stories of what the native Americans did to each other.
In the early colonialization of India, the British wanted only to have a stable trade relationship. The warring factions of the principalities disrupted that trade and the British found themselves pacifying larger and larger tracts until they were the de facto rulers of India.
I thing something similar happened in the Indian resettlement effort. The initial thinking was that the Indian culture needed to be preserved, thus giving a moral justification for the atrocities involved in resettlement implementation. The biggest problem for the tribes was believing Washington. A problem we still have today, I might add.
If I were a “resettled” native, I would be dead, because there would be no way I would be giving up my land because of some damn treaty.
June 6, 2008 at 10:31 am
APO wrote:
My wife is a Seneca indian so I have heard many sides to the issue. One point that seldom gets reported is that many natives are in favor of such things because they keep alive some form of native awareness and culture.
Indeed, I’ve heard the same thing from other people of Native American descent. Anyway, the Seminole nation has a very good relationship with Florida State and has rebuffed any attempts at sanction. In part that’s because FSU has made an effort to reach out.
June 19, 2008 at 12:06 am
Nancy Cantor is one of the top academics in America and a brilliant mind. Bill O’Reily..not so much. Bill makes up for it with a gargantuan ego however. Syracuse University is no doubt thrilled the country rubes in IL didn’t need her anymore.
October 26, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Run away little dwarf lady! Run away!