February 4, 2007 7:56 AM

Or, you could have just left well enough alone.....

Cross Removal Stirs Va. College Campus

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - As a Catholic, Vince Haley often went to Mass at the College of William and Mary’s historic Wren Chapel when he was an undergraduate in the 1980s. Also a Catholic, school President Gene R. Nichol often goes to the 120-seat chapel alone at night to think in the quiet. Both agree the chapel is a sacred space meaningful to students, alumni, faculty and staff of the public school who use it for religious services and secular events. They clash, though, over what to do with an unadorned, 18-inch brass cross that had been displayed on the altar since about 1940. Nichol ordered the cross removed in October to make the chapel more welcoming to students of all faiths. Previously, the cross could be removed by request; now it can be returned by request….”It’s the right thing to do to make sure that this campus is open and welcoming to everyone,” Nichol said. “This is a diverse institution religiously, and we want it to become even more diverse.”

I have more than a passing interest in this subject, mostly because my youngest stepson, Eric, is a sophomore at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg. I haven’t heard Eric mention this, so my impression is that it’s not an argument that’s tearing the campus apart, but any time you have alumni threatening to withhold donations…well, let’s just say that tends to get people’s attention.

I can appreciate what President Nicol was trying to accomplish by removing the cross, but I wonder if he had ANY idea of the ferocity of the hornet’s nest he was about to knock over. If he had just left things as they were, a few people may have complained here and there, but this is an intellectual environment we’re talking about here. Someone is bound to be complaining about something at some point in time, right? On a college campus, people find all sorts of things to take offense over. If it’s not College Republicans having a “affirmative action bake sale”, it’s a dining hall serving pork roast during Ramadan. If some individual or group isn’t pissed off about something, then you can assume the school is on holiday and no one’s on campus.

William and Mary, founded by royal charter in 1693 with a mission that included training Anglican ministers, is the nation’s second-oldest university after Harvard. Alumni include President Thomas Jefferson.

William and Mary became a public school in 1906.

The chapel, built in 1732, is a wing of the Wren Building, which the university says is the country’s oldest academic building in continuous use, built between 1695 and 1699.

The issue has drawn the attention of prominent conservatives including [former House Speaker and DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener Newt] Gingrich, who recently weighed in with an opinion column.

The student assembly defeated a resolution to return the cross, and Nichols’ decision was endorsed by faculty and by Campus Ministers United, Jewish and Christian clergy who advise campus religious organizations.

If President Nicol had just left things as they were, there would have likely been the usual trickle of complaints. Like I said, it’s a college campus; someone’s not going to be happy unless they have something to piss and moan about. Instead of dealing with the normal handful of complaints, Pres. Nichol has succeeded in angering zealots on both sides of the fence. Now that everyone has staked out the positions, the possibility for compromise seems to have gone right out the window. Nice going, eh?

Ah, well…what else is one to do in Williamsburg. Unless you’re a golfer, a college student, a newlywed, or a nearly-dead, there’s just much of anything there. I suppose one has to find excitement where one can.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 4, 2007 7:56 AM.

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