Brody's Notes... William & Mary President Taylor Reveley To Virginia's AG: 'No discrimination at W&M'

Taylor Reveley   Photo by Tom Cogill 

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 10 | In a carefully worded letter sent out yesterday to students, faculty, alumni, and the media, The College of William & Mary President Taylor Reveley wrote;

Dear William & Mary Community,

Virginia’s Attorney General has written public colleges and universities in the Commonwealth about their anti-discrimination policies.  At William & Mary, we need to review carefully the AG’s views as a matter of law and policy, as well as seek the counsel of the campus community, including of course our Board of Visitors.  This process has just begun.

For now, let’s be clear that William & Mary neither discriminates against people nor tolerates discrimination on our campus.  Those of us at W&M insist that members of our campus community be people of integrity who have both the capacity to meet their responsibilities to the university and the willingness to engage others with civility and respect.  We do not insist, however, that members of our community possess any other particular characteristics, whether denominated in race, religion, nationality, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other of the myriad personal characteristics that differentiate human beings.  We certainly do not discriminate against people on such grounds, or tolerate discrimination against them.  This is the way we live our lives together at William & Mary, because we believe this is the way we should live our lives together.  This is not going to change.  

Taylor Reveley

Last week, Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R), had sent a letter to all of the state's public Colleges and Universities in which he wrote that:

 "It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including 'sexual orientation,' 'gender identity,' 'gender expression,' or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly." He also wrote Colleges that have included such language in their policies -- which include all of Virginia's leading schools -- have done so "without proper authority" and should "take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law and public policy of Virginia."

The Virginia Gazette, the local Williamsburg newspaper where the college is located, in this morning's edition published an article by staff correspondent Susan Robertson headlined: 'Students fired up over anti-gay letter.' Ms Robertson reported;

An extraordinary letter from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli ordering public colleges to rescind their policies banning gay discrimination has set off a firestorm. One Facebook group based at College of William & Mary had 900 members when the story broke last Thursday. By early afternoon, membership had grown to more than 1,300. The page features a photo of Cuccinelli with the W&M seal plastered over his mouth. 

Freshman Matthew Whitfield started the group last Friday after seeing the letter. He was outraged that Cuccinelli would urge the state to take a step backward and said he wanted to get people at William & Mary to come out strong against the letter. He sent invitations to a few friends of Facebook and has watched the group become a hub of activity over the last few days. He called it “grassroots at its finest."   

“They thought that colleges would remain quiet,” he said. “That students would be too busy with their personal lives to worry about the discrimination of a few, but  I believe that we will prove them wrong.”  

He has been impressed with the number of students who have stepped up in support, but he isn’t surprised. 

“I believe that this is a generation that will not let some attorney general reverse the progress we have made,” he said. “This is a generation that will not abide any type of intolerance, and that will not let the injustice of the past affect the equality of our future.” 

Alumni, faculty, and former faculty have joined in the effort. Sue Mosher, a 1974 W&M grad and mother of a 2009 W&M graduate said;

“I have written the attorney general, my delegate, and my senator to voice my support for nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation and to criticise the AG’s opinion as illogical and potentially harmful, because it gives a green light for those seeking support for their bigotry.”