Former students at historic college upset over recent actions of administrators
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
February 22, 2007
(OneNewsNow.com) - - Recent events at William and Mary, one of the oldest colleges in the United States, have sparked a flurry of protest from conservative students, faculty and alumni. The school, which not long ago removed a cross from display in a campus chapel, has now hosted a show featuring performances by people employed in sexually-oriented, adult entertainment jobs.
Last week, the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, hosted an event called the "Sex Workers' Art Show." According to news reports, the visual and performance art presentation featured topless dancers and other sex industry workers -- this at the same campus that made headlines last fall when officials removed a cross from the college's Wren Chapel, claiming its display did not promote diversity.
That cross is now placed on Wren Chapel's altar for extended hours every Sunday and removed from public view the rest of the time. However, William and Mary alumnus Dennis Di Mauro is currently helping to organize a petition drive, soliciting signatures from alumni, students and faculty who want to see the cross placed back on permanent display in the chapel.
Di Mauro says the College of William and Mary has a rich Christian history and heritage. "It isn't just any college," he points out; "it's the second oldest college in the country, and it really represents the United States."
To have the school become "a place where the cross isn't welcome, but strippers and prostitutes discussing how their lifestyles are appropriate is allowed, is a real sad testament," the alumnus observes. He says college officials are teaching a lopsided view of diversity with their actions of late.
Basically, Di Mauro asserts, by making the argument that the Wren Chapel cross had to be removed for the sake of tolerance, the college is teaching students that, when they see a Christian symbol they do not like, they need to rip it down. "Now, is that tolerant?" he asks. "It's almost like reverse tolerance."
And while this message of intolerance against Christianity and its symbols is being communicated, the William and Mary graduate notes that events like the Sex Workers' Art Show are not only tolerated but welcomed. This is wrong, Di Mauro suggests, and he says he hopes to meet and discuss his concerns with college officials during their next regular board meeting.
Pro-family leader Tony Perkins, head of the DC-based Family Research Council, noted in his February 19 Washington Update that the Sex Workers Art show was sponsored in part by William and Mary's homosexual club and featured "male, female, and drag strippers, escorts, and prostitutes" discussing various topics.
Perkins also pointed out that the college's president, Gene Nichol, defended the school's invitation to the touring art show by saying he did not like that sort of show, but "it is not the practice ... of universities to censor or cancel performances because they are controversial." But if that is the case, the pro-family spokesman commented, "How then is it the school's practice to censor a religious symbol?"
Outcry over "this recent hypocrisy" has prompted many William and Mary alumni to withhold their financial support, Perkins adds. And, he notes, a graduate of the college's law school is filing a federal lawsuit in an attempt to force the college to put the Wren Chapel cross back on permanent display.
