MCTWith three weeks to go before former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is scheduled to speak at Washington University’s 560 Music Center, students across campus are preparing a myriad of responses to his arrival.
Several St. Louis area organizations including the College Democrats and Washington University Peace Coalition will be staging a peaceful protest on Feb. 19, the day of Gonzales’ appearance. Ben Guthorn, president of the College Democrats, also stressed his group’s campus educational campaign leading up to the event.
“Our main goal is simply to educate the public about Alberto Gonzales-his past record, what he’s done in the past, quotes he has said and the things he’s done to condone torture,” said Guthorn, a sophomore.
Guthorn blames Gonzales for allowing the ill treatment and abuse of captured Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, which Guthorn says violated a code in the Geneva Convention.
The torture issue, according to sophomore Sean Rhoads, a member of the Peace Coalition, is the main cause of disapproval for many students planning to attend the protest, although some also hope to address Gonzales’ role in the misuse of the National Security Administration (NSA) surveillance program in 2005 and the controversial dismissals of U.S. Attorneys in 2006.
“Gonzales is in the epicenter of all those things if you look at the paper trail,” said Rhoads.
According to sophomore Becky Hufstader, vice president of the College Democrats, large posters detailing Gonzales’ actions in the Bush administration will go up around campus two weeks prior to the event. A faculty panel coordinated by the College Democrats and the Peace Coalition will also lead a discussion on torture issues at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 at Ursa’s Fireside.
“Gonzales has been indicted in Germany for war crimes,” said Hufstader. “That really plays into the question of why we’re inviting an indicted criminal on campus to speak.”
Student Union (SU) approved the College Republicans’ proposal last semester for Gonzalez to speak, in an effort to draw more well-known though perhaps more controversial speakers to the University’s lectern.
Rhoads and Guthorn agree that while they enjoy the polarization and politicization on campus, they feel ambivalent about a figure such as Gonzales being invited to campus using the student activity fee.
“Personally, I’m always interested in hearing both sides of the story,” said Guthorn, “but this makes me apprehensive.”
Gonzales will receive a payment of $30,000 for his speech while $4,000 will go toward security, airfare and first class accommodations, said Guthorn.
In reaction to these figures, Professor of Political Science Gary Miller said, “That isn’t how I would use my money.”
“Even many members of the Republican Party have issues with Gonzales,” said Guthorn. “It’s ironic that the College Republicans would choose this figure to represent the party.”
Junior Charis Fischer, president of the College Republicans, wrote disapprovingly of the planned protest, calling it “intolerance” and “disappointing at an academic institution such as ours.” Fischer said that the Peace Coalition’s accusations “are not grounded in fact, and it would be in their best interest to actually listen to the other side of the story for once.”
“It is ironic how a party that weds itself to the First Amendment selectively abandons that principle when a Republican speaker is involved,” wrote Fischer in an e-mail regarding the College Democrats’ contribution to the protest.
The protesters hope that security will not prove to be an issue. It is uncertain at the moment whether they will even be allowed on the property.
“We still don’t have a good sense of where we’ll go, and we’re a little unhappy with that,” said Rhoads.
Hufstader said that all the protesters will demand will be a presence either directly outside the building or across the street.
“As students, we deserve to be on the property,” he said.
With the protest and Gonzales’ speech still yet to come, the College Democrats are already looking forward to bringing in speakers of their own in the future.
“We haven’t had a hard-line commitment from SU,” said Guthorn. “However, we’ve been told that since this money has been given to the College Republicans, the same amount of money should be available to any other student groups.”
In the meantime, Guthorn has high hopes for the protest.
“We’ll be speaking out as a Wash. U. student body,” he said. “Hopefully our voices will resound louder than his.”