The New Criterion

Readers of this weblog will note that we have several times taken Nancy Rabinowitz, the director Hamilton College’s Kirkland Project, to task (see, for example, here, here, and here).

It was Professor Rabinowitz who invited Annie Sprinkle to campus. It was she who invited the convicted felon Susan Rosenberg to teach a course at the college,. And it was she who invited the now-infamous Ward "little Eichmanns" Churchill to give a talk at the college. Well, reality apparently counts for something, for this news is just in Kirkland Project Director Resigns. I liked the subhead, too: "Action is Effective Immediately." Rabinowitz noted that she was resigning "under duress" and commented that the "media attack" sparked by the the Ward Chruichill episode was

directed personally at me as director of the Kirkland Project. This, in turn, has been destructive to the project and to the educational mission of the college, in particular to its desire to create a more diverse and welcoming environment for all students.

Hmm. She’s right that many of the attacks were directed against her. Quite right, too. She was, after all, director of the Kirkland Project. It was she who invited all those fruit-loops to campus. We can only hope that those attacks were "destructive of the [Kirkland] Project." It would be pretty to think so. But it by no means follows that those attacks were destructive of "the educational mission of the college." Quite the contrary: whatever is destructive of the Kirkland Project is likely to enhance the educational mission of Hamilton College, since by removing the influence of KP it is also removing a force for politicizing debate and enforcing political correctness. One point for the home team!

[Update 7:46 pm] Meanwhile, Ward Churchill takes unholy orders:

Rael, leader of the International Raelian Movement (www.rael.org) has just given the "Honorary Priest" title to Ward Churchill (University of Colorado professor) for his essay which most of the US is decrying as insensitive or unpatriotic.

[Correction, 2.12.05] It has been pointed out to me that it was not The Kirkland Project but the "Womyn’s Center," a student group that is allied to the Kirkland Project, which brought Annie Sprinkle to Hamilton. Still, you can tell that where the Kirkland Porject stands (stood?) on such matters since in September of 2002 it sponsored a brown-bag presentation by Tyler Ashley Merriman, an employee of Babes in Toyland, "a woman-owned, women-run sex toy store." Ms. Merriman explored "the complexities of the sex industry." You bet!