Op-Ed More Rehnquist ramblings

Author: Pat Zomer

"At Middlebury College, we challenge students to participate fully in a vibrant and diverse academic community" according to the Mision Statement of Middlebury.

I am sure you recognize the phrase above from Middlebury College's Mission Statement. The Mission Statement forms the foundation of our collective Middlebury experience and expresses our ideal vision for what Middlebury is and can be. A vibrant academic community forms when professors continuously develop within and across their disciplines and students openly engage material and theory. The administration, faculty, and student body understood and, in my opinion, fulfilled this portion of the College's mission statement during my time at Middlebury.

Unfortunately, it is my opinion that while I was at Middlebury and in the subsequent years since my graduation, attention to and progress in meeting the academic diversity portion of the mission statement has been lacking. The recent faculty motion regarding the endowed professorship named after Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is only the latest example of a dangerous trend at the College (and within the county) to completely dismiss avenues of thought or world-views that are different from one's own.

I believe the College acted rightly in accepting the substantial funds to endow the professorship and was completely in the right to name the professorship after Justice Rehnquist. However, the administration's best decision was naming Professor Jim Ralph as the first Justice Rehnquist Professor of American History and Culture. I had the honor to take a few of Professor Ralph's classes, and I am fully convinced that he would forgo the temptation to use the position to blindly praise or ridicule Justice Rehnquist's time on the court. Professor Ralph is deeply committed to fulfilling the College's mission by providing both vibrant and diverse academic opportunities and will continue to lead thoughtful, thorough, and intellectually honest examinations of American History, including those portions influenced by Justice Rehnquist.

In his latest book, Senator Barack Obama reminds us, "it's precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political debate that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face as a country." I fear attempts to distance the College from the Rehnquist professorship reinforces Senator Obama's assessment of our current problems as a country. Professor Kevin Moss eloquently related his concerns regarding the College's's acceptance of the Rehnquist professorship in The Campus and I genuinely regret that some of Justice Rehnquist's opinions directly infringed upon his life. Professor Moss has every right to express his displeasure with the naming of the Rehnquist professorship and I applaud his attempts to open a dialogue over the issue. However, because the professorship was given to Jim Ralph, a man who I have the utmost confidence in and respect for, I believe the Rehnquist professorship is an opportunity for Middlebury to live up to its mission and give its students the vibrant and diverse academic community it promises.

Pat Zomer '05 is a Middlebury College alumnus from Boston, Mass.