The 1999 Sheldon
The coveted annual prize that goes to a wimpy college president
At Yeshiva University in New York City, the culprit was believed to be another high official or perhaps the entire administration. Copies of the feisty campus paper, the Commentator, have been disappearing whenever outsiders visit the campus. The last straw was removal of an issue with an article reporting that Yeshiva employees were taking the papers. Last month, without admitting any university responsibility, a dean sent the editors a check for $1,850 along with a letter opposing removal of the papers. Sadly, Yeshiva has been declared ineligible for a Sheldon--administrators are supposed to look the other way, not conduct the thefts themselves.
The last finalist is Donald Gerth, president of California State University-Sacramento, where 3,000 copies of the State Hornet were stolen in October. But first, a quiz: Suppose a campus has bomb threats, four outbreaks of violence at the football game (one of them fatal), and a picture in the campus paper of a dangerous chokehold being applied to a man who resisted arrest at the game. Which of these events would cause the campus to erupt? Answer: none of the above. A major eruption came because the man shown resisting arrest was a Latino, thus reflecting badly on all Hispanic-Americans. Because of this editorial insensitivity, Latino students stole the papers, used them to barricade the editorial offices, then presented a list of nonnegotiable demands, including a permanent ban on publication of any material depicting minorities in a negative light.
During this uproar, President Gerth said nothing. When the State Hornet got a bomb threat and death threats, he did nothing. But a month later, when the ethnic studies department received a bomb threat, he whirled into action. He called out campus police and contacted the FBI. He sent out a stern campuswide letter condemning the threat and demanding tolerance. Citing the obvious double standard, a faculty member said, "I think we've got your man for the Sheldon." Yes, you do. Congratulations, Donald Gerth, Sheldon laureate 1999.
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