Washington
A former top official of the American Association of University Professors considered asking Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, to finance the purchase of a new headquarters for the organization, the AAUP's current president, Cary Nelson, says in a new book scheduled for release early next year.
But the former AAUP administrator that Mr. Nelson says offered up the idea — Roger Bowen, who served as general secretary of the organization from July 2004 through June 2007 — today called the account in Mr. Nelson's book "fanciful" and asserted he has no recollection of suggesting the group ask Mr. Chávez for money.
"I can easily imagine a joke along those lines," Mr. Bowen said in an interview. "If that happened," he said, "I am sure there was laughter."
In No University Is an Island, scheduled for release by New York University Press in February, Mr. Nelson says Mr. Bowen had, as general secretary, come up with the idea of buying two buildings a block apart to serve as the AAUP's new headquarters here. The AAUP had no way of paying for the buildings, the book says, but Mr. Bowen "was convinced the AAUP could approach Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, who would buy the buildings as a way of showing his support for academic freedom and embarrassing the U.S. government."
The book says Mr. Bowen's proposal "never left his office." But in an interview today, Mr. Nelson said Mr. Bowen had been prepared to discuss seeking financial support from Mr. Chávez in early 2006 as part of a proposal to buy the buildings that he planned to submit to organization's executive committee. "I just said, 'Roger, no,' so it did not go anywhere," said Mr. Nelson, a professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"It thought it was a silly idea," Mr. Nelson added. "It is not a good idea to present silly ideas to the executive committee."
Mr. Nelson said the idea came up because of Mr. Chávez's previous decision to have Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-run oil company, offer discounted heating oil to low-income American families.
Besides being concerned about "whatever the weird politics would be from us aligning ourselves with another country," Mr. Nelson said he simply saw the idea as impractical. "The bottom line," he said, "was that I did not think we had a snowball's chance in hell of getting a building donated by Venezuela."
Comments
1. rogerbowen - December 14, 2009 at 04:00 pm
Why bother, Mr. Schmidt, to ask for my reaction if you do not bother to offer it in full to your readers? For the record: the lease on the AAUP office was ending so I looked at several floors in different buildings in downtown DC--NOT "two buildings a block apart." Affordability was an issue. As I had just landed grants from several foundations, including OSI, I did suggest that we might approach foundations for funding a if the executive committee wanted to purchase rather than lease space. That idea was not rejected; in fact, Mr. Nelson himself was eager to court OSI. If a grant from Chavez was mentioned, it was certainly NOT because I was "convinced" it would be successful; the idea sounds as much like a joke today as it would have then.
Roger Bowen
2. 11270009 - December 14, 2009 at 04:42 pm
With the sad state of economic affairs in Venezuela, where millions live in poverty and lack basic necessities (and, some would argue, basic civil rights), it would be unconscionable for an American academic community to accept funding from Chavez. Bad joke, indeed.
3. john_d_foubert_phd - December 14, 2009 at 04:57 pm
Dr. Bowen,
If you hadn't suggested the idea of getting a donation from Chavez, it stands to reason that you wouldn't be saying "if a grant from Chavez was mentioned" and I doubt you'd be quoted as saying "if that happened." If you didn't make the suggestion, why not just say you didn't make the suggestion. It sounds very much like you did and that you meant it. As a member of AAUP speaking only in my personal capacity and not for the organization, I am deeply concerned that someone in a position of leadership of our organization would apparently entertain such a suggestion, and I'm thankful that we are under new leadership that will hopefully continue to repair the damage and help us move forward. I joined when I heard that younger faculty were needed to revitalize the AAUP. Lets hope the AAUP can avoid ridiculous suggestions in the future.
4. plottel - December 14, 2009 at 05:33 pm
The AAUP might reconsider Roger Bowen's idea of purchasing, rather than leasing office space.
5. terryair - December 14, 2009 at 05:39 pm
Where was Gordon Lish when Cary Nelson needed him?
6. haohtt - December 14, 2009 at 08:24 pm
Mr. Bowen's account sounds more plausible, since no one in his or her right might could seriously consider that "Ego" Chavez would have any interest at all in academic freedom.
7. john_d_foubert_phd - December 14, 2009 at 09:56 pm
It doesn't sound like either of them were were acting in their right mind to me.
8. ophe07 - December 15, 2009 at 09:07 am
I question Cary Nelson's motivation. Bowen's account sounds much more reasonable. Nelson should be focusing on AAUP's current problems and not trying to drag the organization's former leader through the mud in order to make himself look better.
9. rlmprez - December 15, 2009 at 09:24 am
Check with the academics in Venezuela. I'm sure you will find considerable academic freedom. Joke or not, it is a clear example of the disconnect between the leadership of organizations like AAUP and the real world.
10. jaysanderson - December 15, 2009 at 09:25 am
I have to find another higher education news source. This is just dumb...the story, the responses, everything. Dumb.
11. wowamazing - December 20, 2009 at 05:19 am
I'm with @jayanderson on this. This article is thoroughly ridiculous and I'm not even sure why it's considered news. Whoever gave the go-ahead to this story needs to seriously re-think their content quality standards.