To the editor,
Matthew Knowles eloquently makes some well-taken points in his Feb.14 Viewpoint responding to a suggestion I made which was discussed in the Feb. 13 front-page article, "Faculty, students speak out against former Harvard president." (Editor's note: A correction regarding this error ran in the Daily on Feb. 14.)
There was, however, one significant mistake in the Viewpoint: Lawrence Summers will speak as part of the Snyder Presidential Lecture series on March 14, 2007, not Feb. 14, 2007.
Let me offer a modification to my original suggestion. My March 14 will be spent rehearsing and performing in a new work by a Tufts graduate composer in our new Distler Performance Hall. So my own manner of boycott has been pre-ordained.
If you share my opinion (and the opinion of a large number of faculty and students) and wish not to hear Lawrence Summers speak on rethinking undergraduate education, then come next door to the Granoff Music Center at 8 p.m. on March 14 and hear some challenging new music instead!
Several of my colleagues have told me I have been "too hard" on Summers in this instance. This is possibly true. But the goal being pursued here with many concerned faculty is to establish a balance between conservative and progressive viewpoints when inviting prominent outside speakers to Tufts.
As a group of caring faculty, we share Knowles' opinion that diversity of thought is crucial to the intellectual vitality of our campus community, and we are certainly not in the business of denying anyone an opportunity to partake in that vitality.
But we also feel that the Snyder Lecture Series has been weighted toward the conservative side in recent years, and since we do not decide on the invitations, we are publicly stating our strong opinion that more progressive speakers are needed. We urge others to join us.
Sincerely,
John McDonald
Associate Professor of Music
