A Salute To Chris Kennedy

It isn't often that I've been in a position to complement a member of the Kennedy family, but this is a huge exception. Chris Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy, gave an impassioned speech to the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois of which he chairs against granting professor emeritus status to best pal of, and ghost book writer for, President Barack Hussein Obama. The Board of Trustees unanimously voted down emeritus status for Bill Ayers after Kennedy's persuasive speech. The Chicago Tribune's Jodi Cohen describes the highly emotional scene:

The vote, at a U. of I. board meeting in Urbana, was unanimous and came after a passionate speech by board chair Christopher Kennedy, who invoked the 1968 assassination of his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, in saying that he was voting his conscience.

The other trustees, without comment, also voted against the appointment.

Ayers, the Vietnam War-era radical, had been an education faculty member at UIC since 1987. He retired effective Aug. 31 and then sought the emeritus faculty status, a largely honorific title that includes some benefits such as library privileges.

A co-founder of the Weather Underground anti-war group, Ayers was frequently in the media spotlight and, as such, was one of the university's best-known faculty members.

While trustees regularly vote on emeritus appointments, they rarely comment about them.

But in an emotional statement, Kennedy discussed his reasons for voting against Ayers' request.

"I am guided by my conscience and one which has been formed by a series of experiences, many of which have been shared with the people of our country and mark each of us in a profound way," Kennedy said.

He said he could not confer the title "to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father."

Kennedy was referring to a 1974 book co-authored by Ayers, "Prairie Fire," which was dedicated to a long list of people including Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan and "all political prisoners in the U.S."

Ayers became a controversial figure in Barack Obama's presidential campaign because they worked on a school-reform initiative together, leading opponents to say Obama was linked to a "terrorist." UIC was forced to release more than 1,000 files detailing the activities of that group. The university also faced questions in 2001 after Ayers wrote in his memoir about helping with the non-fatal bombings of government buildings.

According to the UIC faculty handbook, the granting of emeritus status is "based on merit" and is "an extraordinary title that is given for extraordinary service."

Kennedy said he hoped faculty, staff and Illinois residents "understand my motives and my reasoning" and concluded: "How could I do anything else?"

Ayers could not be reached for comment, and UIC School of Education Dean Vicki Chou did not return a call from the Tribune. She told the Tribune last month that Ayers has "been really a very good colleague here" and "the good far outweighs any negative press."

It absolutely sickens me that the President of the United States and Commander In Chief of our armed services has chosen to so closely align himself with a man like Ayers who considers the assassin of Robert Kennedy a political prisoner. When I used to work for the Illinois legislature, we had a Republican legislator who relentlessly offered up resolutions to denounce the University of Illinois for giving a professorship to such a despicable terrorist like Ayers. His presence at the University of Illinois permanently maligned my view of the school as an institution of higher learning. Thank God the Board of Trustees was more sensible than the university's administration has been these past 25 years in allowing the terrorist Ayers to teach at the school.