UMass faculty takes 'symbolic' vote against Card degree

BY Kristin Palpini
Staff Writer

Published on May 25, 2007

The University of Massachusetts Faculty Senate passed a resolution Thursday that voices opposition to granting an honorary degree for former White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.

And both sides of the Card debate - those who support the award and those who protest it - are calling the vote a victory.

Because there was no quorum present when the vote was taken, supporters of the Card degree are calling it invalid. There was a quorum, according to a sign-in sheet for senators. People who are opposed to the award said they are satisfied they were able to make their opinions heard through the vote.

Faculty senators voted 31 in favor of approving a resolution that states Card does not deserve an honorary degree, because he does not represent high ethical standards and is not a person of great accomplishment, both qualifying factors for an honorary degree, according to the Faculty Senate. There were no votes cast against the resolution.

"At least the Faculty Senate has not disapproved awarding of the degree. That is some small moral victory," said David T. Vacchi, a professor of military leadership, who is in favor of honoring Card with an honorary degree.

"It's a bit ambiguous," said Tobias I. Baskin, an associate professor of biology, about the validity of the resolution. "I am certainly satisfied that we showed a strong sentiment of the Faculty Senate of those who were present." Baskin was one of the first Faculty Senate members to propose the resolution.

Card, who served as White House chief of staff from 2001 to 2006, is scheduled to receive an honorary degree from the Amherst campus during the graduate student commencement ceremony on Friday.

Since early May, students and faculty have orchestrated protests over the degree and asked the chancellor and Board of Trustees to rescind plans to award the honor. University administration has held fast and plans to award Card the degree next week.

While there was no physical quorum when the Faculty Senate vote on Card's degree was taken, a quorum had been reached at the start of the meeting, affirmed by a list of senators who signed their names to a roster. Because this roster contained 37 signatures, one more than the number needed for a quorum, Presiding Officer Robert H. Wilson allowed a vote to take place.

At the time the vote was taken, however, there were 35 senators present. Two had left earlier in the meeting in an effort to block the vote.

Vacchi, one of the senators who left the meeting, said he did so because there was no debate about the degree. Baskin called the question to a vote after making the first and only remarks about the proposed resolution.

"It was distressing that someone would call the question and stop the debate," Vacchi said. "A bunch of people might have changed their opinion when the facts were all laid out."

Baskin said he called the question because the meeting had already gone on for an hour, with an address by President Jack M. Wilson. He said he felt everyone in the audience had already decided how they would vote.

Ernest D. May, the Faculty Senate secretary, said the vote is valid because it went unchallenged at the meeting.

"It wasn't challenged at the meeting, so therefore it stands as an action of the Faculty Senate," May said. "It's a symbolic statement of disapproval."