It doesn’t always take an earthquake to shake up northern California.

The Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank loosely associated with Stanford University, rocked the Palo Alto region last week with the appointment of former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld to the rank of distinguished fellow.

The appointment spawned a campus-wide protest from Stanford faculty and students who created a petition that is now more than 3,000 signatures strong.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford, was one of the faculty members who helped start the petition.

Zimbardo referred to Rumsfeld as a ‘war criminal,’ and said his offenses include endangering the troops, signing off on the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and poorly reacting to the growth of the insurgency in Iraq.

Zimbardo said these offenses make him unable to be qualified as ‘distinguished’ and should earn him a term in Abu Ghraib prison.

The Hoover Institution believes Rumsfeld, who will be asked to participate in a task force on ideology and terrorism, is getting unfair treatment.

‘Calling (Rumsfeld) a war criminal is unfair. The fact that he is a controversial figure does not mean that he shouldn’t be invited,’ said Jeffery Wachtel, a senior assistant to Stanford’s president. ‘People can engage and learn from Rumsfeld, and in the end, we hope it is seen as a positive.’

As for the students involved, many of them agree with the petitioners that Rumsfeld is not distinguished.

Jesse Wallin, a student at Stanford and member of Amnesty International, described Rumsfeld as a ‘chief architect in policy, which has resulted in America’s fall from international grace.’

The outcry of criticism from students is ‘indicative of the overall campus sentiment,’ he said.

Representatives from the Hoover Institution and Stanford are not happy with media coverage of the appointment. Articles have been published in The New York Times, USA Today and The Associated Press.

The institutions aren’t the only ones displeased with the negative public relations; petitioners believe they are being misrepresented as well. Stanford art history professor Pamela Lee said media coverage has affected recent events on campus.

‘The media has largely misrepresented the nature of the petition as a matter of ‘free speech’ and has made spurious comparisons between our initiative and recent events at Columbia University,’ Lee said in an e-mail. ‘To say, as this pundit has, that we are intolerant and hypocritical is to completely distort the nature of our protest.’

Zimbardo said as the semester continues, he thinks there will be thousands more signatures to the petition against Rumsfeld’s new appointment.

‘This petition has nothing to do with limiting the free speech of anyone,’ Zimbardo said. ‘We welcome anyone to our campus – even Rumsfeld. In open discourse, in public debates of ideas, where authority opinions are challenged by evidence available for scrutiny.’

Rumsfeld, who has not yet stepped foot on campus, is getting little support. Senior assistant Wachtel said, ‘We sure haven’t seen many people come to his defense.’

Shooting suspect expelled

The 18-year-old suspect in the Sept. 21 campus shooting at Delaware State University was expelled. Loyer Braden was expelled on grounds of violating the zero-tolerance policy for guns on campus. Braden was charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and possession of a firearm during a felony after shooting two 17-year-old freshmen.

N.J.: The Stem Cell State

Two New Jersey universities, Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, are awaiting the passage of $400 million worth of funding to build the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. The center would be housed in a new building and its supporters say it will ‘provide a number of social, economical and public health benefits to the state,’ according to The Daily Targum of Rutgers University.

Published on September 30, 2007 at 12:00 pm