Thursday, 4:30 PM
UMass protesters rally against honorary degree for Andrew Card
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff
AMHERST -- Vice President Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other high profile members of the Bush administration face regular protests, but today at the University of Massachusetts demonstrators took aim at Andrew Card, the reticent former White House chief of staff whose pending honorary degree has generated considerable controversy.
Card, a longtime Bay State politician, has drawn the ire of Iraq war opponents, who say his war planning activities disqualify him from walking the stage at the flagship state university's May 25 commencement. The protesters, a well-organized group of undergraduates, graduate students, and some faculty members, say the university must reverse the plan to award Card by early next week or face more intensive protests, including a possible demonstration at the commencement itself.
UMass officials today insisted Card would get the degree as planned.
"The award is going to be presented to Mr. Card," said Bill Wright, a spokesman for UMass president Jack Wilson. "He has performed distinguished public service."
The plan has roiled this campus as the school year draws to a close. Campus groups protesting Card plan a series of demonstrations up to the commencement.
Both the student government and the graduate student union have passed resolutions denouncing Card. The groups have obtained more than 1,000 signatures on an online petition, and more than 350 faculty members have signed the protest letter. About 250 chanting and sign-bearing protesters marched into the main administration building today, banging pots and pans and singing, "Hey hey, ho ho, Andy Card has got to go!"
But with UMass officials clearly unwilling to uninvite Card, the two sides appear to be headed for a potentially disruptive showdown on graduation day.
"There will be disruptions. People won't stand for this, "said Justin Jackson, 27, a history graduate student. "The protest will be nonviolent, but what about the violence of the war in Iraq? Card was part of that."
