Just two weeks after his speech at the University of Massachusetts drew massive protest, former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card is again causing a stir around campus.
UMass announced yesterday morning that Card would be one of two recipients of an honorary degree from the University during this year’s graduate school commencement.
Members of the Massachusetts Society for Professors (MSP) teamed with graduate and undergraduate UMass students yesterday to organize their response in opposition to the University’s decision.
Card’s April 11 speech at UMass was met by a vocal opposition. The Graduate Student Center and the Radical Student Union (RSU) organized a series of protests from within the lecture to dispute the former Chief of Staff’s policies on the Iraq war and the administration’s foreign policy.
“He was at the center of putting the war together in Iraq. We do not believe that any department or organization on campus should be sponsoring a criminal,” graduate student Sai Madivala told the Daily Collegian in April.
Two students held large banners claiming that Card’s propaganda machine is meant to lie to the people and kill them for profit, and stood up mid-lecture to unfold the sign. In the front row, two students had turned their seats facing away from the stage and covered their ears in silent protest.
Several other students stood up as Card neared the stage and in what looked like blood-stained clothing lay on the floor. Each student represented either a fallen soldier or Iraqi civilian casualty unjustly killed in the line of fire.
Card was the second-longest serving White House Chief of Staff serving under the current president, and also served as the 11th U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush.
The Holbrook native served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1975-1983. He was named Legislature of the Year by the National Republican Legislators Association and received the Distinguished Legislator Award from the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
He received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of South Carolina and went on to attend the United States Merchant Marine Academy and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
The Graduate School Commencement will be held Friday, May 25 at 2 p.m. at the Mullins Center, where approximately 1,200 candidates will receive masters and doctoral degrees.
Card will receive the award alongside UMass Alumnus Tisato Kajiyama, president of Kyushu University in Japan.
Matt Belliveau can be reached at [email protected].
