Cashing in one bum Nichol
Sounds like it’s over, doesn’t it?
The William and Mary Board of Visitors has found its spine at last. In the wake of multiple lies about donations, a warped sense of what it means to “welcome all”, and an inconsistent application of the First Amendment, the BOV privately informed Gene Nichol on Sunday that his contract will not be renewed in June.
In typical knee-jerk style, Nichol resigned effective immediately in a widely dispersed not-so-private email to students and alumni. I understand that he did not tell Rector Powell of this particular move, but then why should he? A petulant child would do no more.
Nichol lists four decisions that he feels were the basis for his dismissal: removing the Wren Cross, not stopping the Sex Show twice, initiating the Gateway program, choosing people of color to be in leadership positions.
Nichol, as usual, misses the salient points. First, the controversy over the Wren Cross was as much about HOW he decided to remove it and HOW he handled the ensuing outrage. Second, the controversy over the Sex Show, for me anyway, was about allowing it on campus in the first place, not stopping it once it was scheduled which is not about censorship but about selection. Third, Gateway is a fine idea, but there are no funds for the program – a major stumbling block to any initiative, regardless of the intended goal, and one that illustrated Nichol’s lack of regard for fiscal responsibility. His fourth point, the Diversity issue, is news to me – I have never heard or seen in print any attack on Nichol’s positions on Diversity, though his email makes it clear he likes making admissions and faculty decisions based on a person’s skin color, an offensive practice to the people of the Civil Rights movement and no less offensive here and now.
In his email, Nichol’s wounded ego and sense of victimhood know no bounds when he claims that “a committed, relentless, frequently untruthful and vicious campaign -- on the internet and in the press -- has been waged against me, my wife and my daughters.” Committed? Yes, that’s true. Relentless? I’ll agree to that compliment. But to say that his opposition attacked his wife and daughters is beyond the pale. To the best of my knowledge, everyone I know kept to the facts of Nichol’s choices, his decisions, his words, his actions as President or in his former professional capacities. His family was and is not an issue. To claim such is yet another reflection on his character, and not a pretty one at that.
What Nichol conveniently ignores in his wound-licking announcement are three supremely important issues: the ban on Indian imagery in the Homecoming parade, the Bias Reporting System, and the lies he told about the 12 million dollar donations. The first two are Free Speech issues that slip past Nichol’s constitutional radar for some reason. He also forgot to mention his acquiescence to the NCAA in removing the feathers from our logo while keeping the name “Tribe”—thus creating confusion of monumental proportions such that our mascot at games is a young man dressed in Scottish kilt, painted to look like William Wallace in Braveheart, which allows the use of feathers in his hair and so does not offend those who think “Indians” is somehow demeaning. Supposedly it’s ok for William Wallace and his heirs to be offended. By such design, we should be called The Clan, not The Tribe.
But the last issue-- the lies--- is paramount. Why, oh why, would anyone want a proven public liar to be president of our beloved College? There is only one answer to that, which is probably why Nichol never talks about it, ever, and why, I hope, the BOV finally chose to terminate his employ.
In short, Nichol is gone – or at least moved. He’ll be at the Law School teaching – what irony!—Constitutional Law, I presume. As far as that goes, I wish him well.
Yes, Nichol is gone, but it’s not over. Not by a long shot. The mess Nichol created and presided over was a direct result of a Board too unwilling to lead in a forthright and timely manner, including hiring this deeply flawed and silly man in the first place. We will do well to watch carefully what the Board does and does not do in the next year as they search for the next President of the College. I will certainly be watching, very closely, and offering whatever help I may give in my limited fashion, both for the search and indefinitely thereafter.
Karla Kraynak Bruno
Author of Mischiefs and Miseries: a novel of
Published as "Where he went wrong:" with editorial changes, Feb. 13, 2008, The Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, Virginia