First Words
The Nature
of an Apology
In the first article in this
month's newsletter, you will read about the recent flap over
including Charley Johns in a list of "Gators to Know."
Read the article for more background on the flap and on Johns.
It is said that hindsight is
20/20. But in real life, this hindsight may not resolve mysteries,
sometimes it only brings the complexity and ambiguity of the
past into sharper focus. Whatever the crimes of the past, by
our nation of origin, our employer, our family or indeed ourselves,
those transgressions are often paired with some kind of nurturing
that has helped raise us and make us what we are today.
In the South, one element of
our past is the complex history that surrounds the relationship
of black and white Americans. We live with this complex history
everyday. At any stoplight in the city you are likely to see
one SUV bearing a Jamaican flag and blaring a hip-hop bass line,
and one right behind it, bearing a Confederate flag... and blaring
a hip-hop bass line.
The University is at a point
where it has to consider its own complex past and its identity.
Many members of the administration have been struggling for years
to help the University of Florida take its place among the great
research universities of the country and, indeed, of the world.
"Rankings" figure prominently in our efforts to prove
to ourselves and to others that, in spite of a lack of general
recognition, UF is truly a great institution...and it is, because
the rankings are out there.
But UF cannot be a great institution
in a vacuum. That is to say, having a great college of engineering,
or medicine, or agriculture or physics or English... any of these
or all of them, does not in and of itself allow us to stand alongside
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Like a graduate student earning
a PhD, the University must also prove its relationship to the
academic tradition and to the spirit of inquiry which we largely
trace from the Greeks, but which is found in many cultures. Perhaps
this is too poetic, but the university must have a profound relationship
to the Enlightenment, and to a spirit of questioning, that teaches
each student to think independently and search beyond the accepted
and the normal – however obtusely – to find more particles
of the truth. The truth that enlightens, the truth that makes
you free...
When a student walks at graduation,
that student is walking in the footsteps of a deep tradition,
that student is taking his or her place in a continuity of thought
and practice that goes back for hundreds of years. In the day-to-day
of term papers, honor codes and drop/add, it is easy to forget
what it should mean to get an education at a university.
The spirit I am talking about
is a deeply liberal one... a liberating one. This is why the
Citadel was forced to admit women. Not because of Affirmative
Action or political pressure or the National Organization of
Women, but because of the continuous forward movement of this
spirit that affirms the fundamental rights of the individual,
including the fundamental equality of persons.
It is always a battle. It was
battle to get women into the University of Florida. It was a
battle for black to be accepted. The culture of the University
is still rooted in many ways in its very Southern surroundings
here in north central Florida. That gives us a deep tradition,
but it gives us a number of biases. How do we move forward and
build on what is wonderful in our tradition and move beyond our
biases?
A critical step is to acknowledge
those parts of our tradition that are inconsistent – incoherent
– with our vision. That step is called an apology. It's
a turning point in our understanding.
No one can apologize for the
actions of the Johns Committee except Johns and his committee
members. For Johns, it is too late. What we can do is acknowledge
that what he did was wrong. As an insurance agent, or as a state
senator or as governor, no doubt Johns did some good, but with
regard to the University of Florida, he was an opponent of civil
rights and a persecutor of homosexuals.
No matter how eager we are
to claim another Florida governor, the claim is undermined by
Johns' mere nine weeks residency at UF and his horrible treatment
of the University, its faculty and students. All in all, Johns
was an enemy of the University and of its liberal tradition.
Those who suffered his inquisition have always known that, in
recent years, many others have learned about it.
Perhaps the apology in the
Gainesville Sun for including Johns in a list of "Gators
to Know" is the first official statement from some component
of University administration that Johns was wrong and that the
administration was wrong to wait so long to say so. Nevertheless,
that apology should represent a turning point. We may not all
be on the same page, but maybe we are at least looking in the
same book?
The apology could have said
more, but in its way it said plenty. We will discover its meaning
in the actions taken by the Alumni Association and by the University.
This simple apology could be a step in bringing the University
into line with the tradition I spoke of. It goes to the "character"
of the institution. And that has as much to do with standing
alongside the great universities of the country – and maybe
leading a bit – as any ranking.
If all this seems to poetic
and too dreamy, let me end it with one of the most sincere and
grounding statements a Florida alum can make...
Go Gators!
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