GREENVILLE, S.C. (ABP)—Students, administrators, faculty and alumni of Furman University are in an uproar over a speech by President Bush at the school’s commencement exercises in Greenville, S.C.
A letter of objection originated with the school’s faculty and was signed by more than 200 professors, administrators and students. It criticized the Bush administration’s involvement in the Iraq war, as well as its treatment of terrorism suspects, handling of environmental and scientific issues, and promotion of deficit spending.
“We are ashamed of these actions of this administration,” the letter stated.
The letter was posted on the school’s official commencement-information website shortly after Furman officials announced Bush was scheduled to speak.
A group of conservative Furman students then drafted their own statement, gathering more than 500 signatures from current students as well as some faculty, administrators and alumni.
The response, orchestrated by Furman’s Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow, took issue with some of the faculty-organized group’s criticisms of the administration. But the bulk of the statement criticized what it described as a political “publicity stunt” by the faculty.
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