Open Letter to Chancellor Bob Hemenway Regarding the 5th Anniversary of the Iraq War
To: Chancellor Robert Hemenway
AN OPEN LETTER TO CHANCELLOR ROBERT HEMENWAY
March 24, 2008
Chancellor Hemenway, We, students at the University of Kansas, appreciate the universityÕs efforts to promote an environment that respects the differences of all people and that cultivates the sharing of progressive knowledge. Beyond mere academics, an institution of higher learning should also be a democratic space where students demand the opportunity to have an impact on administrative decisions that affect themselves and the world. To this end, we wish to inform you about a few of our concerns regarding KUÕs associations with the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Armed Forces, and how these connections relate to the now six-year-long war in Iraq.
During the 1960s and 1970s, students were active agents in raising awareness of the atrocities committed by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Attending university during a period of similarly unjust wars, it is our responsibility to do the same. On numerous occasions you have expressed your belief that it is KU's obligation to support the Òwar effortÓ. You have described how, for example, a joint program with the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth is Ògood for the Army, good for KU and good for the countryÓ (Oread). Are you aware of the numerous human rights abusers you have graduated from the CGSC and applied their knowledge in ways that certainly were not good for their civilian populations (Notorious Graduates from Gauatemala)? In what ways, Chancellor Hemenway, does this association benefit education and social awareness, two subjects you yourself feel very strongly about? On other fronts, an agreement to give wounded soldiers access to post-graduate education is certainly admirable, but should we not also question the broader reasons for which they were injured? Should the university pay lip service to the irresponsibility of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs after the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007? It is an unjust war that created these casualties, as well as those of many more Iraqis. Expanding our relationship with the Department of Defense and the Armed Forces will only produce more effective technology to kill, perpetuating this cycle of violence abroad for profit.
The Department of Defense sponsors numerous faculty members at the University of Kansas; a total of 2,436,597 dollars was awarded in fiscal year 2006 (Sponsored Research at the University of Kansas: Fiscal Year 2006). We can understand why the university believes this is in the best interest of the production of cutting-edge technology and the creation of jobs, but this technology has a real impact: the deaths of thousands of people each day. We understand that the Department of Defense provides much needed funds to conduct research; however should an institution of higher learning be conducting the research of the armed forces? Does this not make KU also responsible in the deaths of soldiers and civilians alike? Knowing this, what effect does it have on the student body?
Despite your professed belief that KU should play a larger role in the interests of the military, what does the mapping of community-held land in southern Mexico have to do with U.S. interest in the Middle East? KU's geography department received a $500,000 grant to conduct this research, which the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth welcomes as data that could be utilized to assess Òemerging and asymmetric threatsÓ around the world (FMSO). What threat do impoverished peasants, reeling from the effects of structural adjustment programs, the privatization of their land, and disastrous trade agreements, pose to U.S. sovereignty?
As you well know, the Princeton Review named KU a Òcollege with a conscienceÓ (Princeton Review). We hope that the administration is working to live up to principles that ensure it can work as a conscious institution. Despite what we are led to believe, the integrity of the University of Kansas does not depend on multi-million dollar research contracts, prestigious faculty members, or high-tech labs. The integrity of the University of Kansas rests on a choice between the interests of corporations and the armed forces and the interests of its students. It is the force of the students that makes a university dynamic. On this day, the 6th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, we ask that you and your colleagues reassess KUÕs priorities as an institution and that you stop supporting an unjust war.
We would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about these issues and more that affect us and the world we care so deeply about daily. The university should be openly transparent and democratic, and to this end, we invite you to speak with us freely. Please respond to info@kuwatch.org if you have any questions.
We also you invite you to attend a teach-in, Tuesday March 25 at 7pm at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center (ECM) at 1204 Oread. We will be discussing a few of these issues, and it should be a very comfortable atmosphere for sharing ideas.
-Students