As protests against the war in Iraq continue in college campuses across the country, the actions of Elizabeth E. Monnin, a Tufts University senior, during a student protest of former President George H.W. Bush, resulted in the university’s Alumni Association withdrawing an award she had only recently been notified of winning.
The Tufts Alumni Association accused Monnin of inappropriate behavior during a speech by the former president on Feb. 26 at Tufts University, and relinquished the Senior Award, one of the school’s most prestigious awards.
According to Monnin, a group of students sitting in the VIP section of the gymnasium held a banner with the phrase ‘Gyms are for soccer, not for warmongers’ and were chanting against the war and the former president’s foreign policy. Another student held up an American flag with an obscene phrase written on it.
When Bush commented on the situation by drawing a parallel to an encounter with abortion rights protesters, one student flashed an offensive gesture at Bush. Administration officials and police eventually escorted the disruptive students from the gym, according to Monnin.
Though Monnin denied allegations that she was the student who made the obscene gesture, Alan M. MacDougall, president of the Tufts Alumni Association, maintained Monnin was in fact responsible.
MacDougall said he discovered Monnin’s involvement when ‘several people who knew her mentioned her name to me.’ After learning of her participation in the event, he realized Monnin was on the list of ‘potential awardees,’ and subsequently brought the issue to the attention of the awards committee.
‘When I realized that Ms. Monnin was a member of a group who disrupted a speech by former President Bush in a most inappropriate way, inconsistent with the traditional Tufts courtesy … I asked the awards committee to review their original decision,’ MacDougall said.
Upon reviewing its decision, the committee decided to revoke Monnin’s award on the grounds of her conduct at the speech and other previous behavior.
‘On the basis of the Bush affair and other disruptive behavior which has occurred during her college career, the committee concluded that she did not, in fact, meet the standard for a future leader of the alumni association and withdrew her invitation to receive the award,’ MacDougall said.
Monnin, a women’s studies and peace and justice double major, has been actively involved in campus protests in the past. In 2000 she was involved in the two day ‘takeover’ of the university’s admissions office in protest of discrimination on campus.
Monnin said she was perplexed as to why past actions played any role in the award’s revocation, since the committee should have been fully aware of them prior to receiving the award.
MacDougall supported the actions taken by the awards committee and maintained the committee is open-minded to contrasting viewpoints.
‘In order to provide the service that we do for our alumni community, our leaders must feel free to express their many and differing opinions,’ he said. ‘This requires a high degree of tolerance of the view of others and of civility.’
MacDougall then sent a letter to Monnin’s home informing her of the committee’s decision. She received the letter while at home over spring break, she said.
Monnin was working at Chili’s when her parents came in for dinner, bringing a piece of mail from Tufts they thought she should see immediately. Monnin said she was ‘shocked’ when she opened the envelope and found MacDougall’s letter informing her of his decision.
‘It made Tufts look horrible,’ she said.
MacDougall chose to send Monnin a letter to avoid making the incident public, but she chose to publicize it.
‘Not wishing to embarrass her I sent her a registered letter,’ he said. ‘I told her that we would make no announcement about the matter. She released the letter to the press. According to the press, she does not plan to contest the matter.’
Monnin said she chose to make the letter public because it ‘speaks to a larger problem,’ a challenge to First Amendment rights and ‘silencing alternative voices.’
According to Boston University spokesman Colin Riley, nothing of this nature has happened at BU.
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