Gene Nichol

Gene R. Nichol

Gene R. Nichol is the twenty-sixth president of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Nichol attended Oklahoma State University, where he played second-string quarterback on its football team, and received his law degree in 1976 from the University of Texas, graduating Order of the Coif. He was the dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law from 1999 to 2005 dean of the University of Colorado Law School from 1988-1995, after which the ABA threatened to remove the school's ABA accredidation.[1] Both the University of Colorado and the University of North Carolina Law Schools suffered a major drop in their US News and World Report ratings while Nichol served as dean and neither have recovered to where they were when he arrived {http://prelawhandbook.com/law_school_rankings__1987_1999/edit

He previously worked at William and Mary as Cutler Professor of Constitutional Law and director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law from 1985 to 1988. His other positions have included teaching law in the undergraduate and law schools of the University of Colorado, the University of Exeter, the University of Oxford, and West Virginia University.

Nichol made a bid for the United States Senate representing the state of Colorado in 1996 with the Democratic Party, but was defeated in the primary. He also made a bid for the US House of Representatives and was also defeated.

Nichol succeeded Timothy J. Sullivan to become the 26th president of the College of William & Mary on July 1, 2005. He was chosen by a unanimous vote of students who were brought to select among various candidates for the presidency, likely as a result of his powerful oratory skills.

Athletic Logo Controversy

As President of the College of William & Mary, Nichol acquiesced to pressure from the NCAA, and agreed to drop the College's feathers from its logo after a lengthy appeals process. The College was allowed to retain the team name of "Tribe" until the next NCAA review. I While several schools, including the University of North Dakota [2] and the University of Illinois [3] have been forced to abandon their mascots, others, such as the University of Utah and Florida State University have not suffered any repercussions. W&M has a strong claim to the Native American symbol since the the school was originally used partially to educate the local Indian population{http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/virginia/williamsburg/wmandmary/wmandmary.html}.

Wren Cross Controversy

Nichol's October 2006 decision to remove the cross from the altar of the Wren Chapel ended his first year as president in more controversy. Nichol explained that a cross in the chapel of a university partially funded by public funds made some students of other religious traditions feel unwelcome in a place considered by many members of the community to be the most important part of the campus.^[1].

Nichol quickly became the target of criticism from a number of alumni, students, and benefactors--not to mention pundits unaffiliated with the college altogether--for changing this long-standing university policy regarding the display of the 18-inch brass cross without seeking consensus. Nichol stated that he had received several complaints from students and parents {Flat Hat News 03/02/2007} because the College frequently holds student organization meetings in the Chapel.

From its construction in the eighteenth century until shortly before World War II, the Wren Chapel had no cross. The Wren cross displayed since approximately 1940 is owned by Bruton Parish Church, the Episcopal church closest to campus, and it is symbolic of the College's early history as an Anglican seminary. The cross lent by Bruton Parish Church was the first one the Wren Chapel had used. Except for the University of Pennsylvaniawhich has no chapelall of the Colonial colleges, from Harvard and Yale to Princeton, Brown, and College of William & Mary, display crosses in their chapels. Of these, William & Mary and Rutgers are the only two considered to be state universities, although all private institutions receive public funds, and William & Mary and many public institutions receive the majority of their operating revenue from private sources.

After his decision to remove the cross, a decision Nichol admits was flawed[4], Nichol has enjoyed mixed support from students and faculty members, while enduring a reduction in alumni confidence. Due to this decision, alumnus James McGlothlin revoked $12 million in planned giving to the College's capital campaign - the largest in its history.^[2]

After months of controversy, Nichol created a hand-picked presidential committee to resolve the crisis. Comprised of alumni, staff, students, and faculty, the committee was charged with examining the "role of religion in a public university" in general, and at the College of William & Mary in particular, but, in reality, the issue of what to do about the cross at the historic Wren Chapel quickly was revealed as its primary focus[5]. After one month the Millington Cross has not been placed in the Wren Chapel as promised by the religion committee, leaving some to speculate about deceptive diffusement of the Wren Cross Controversy by the religion committee.

On March 6, 2007, William & Mary announced that the committee had recommended that the cross be returned to Wren Chapel permanently. Nichol and the Board of Visitors agreed to the recommendation in a press conference. The cross will be displayed in a glass case inside the chapel with a plaque explaining the chapel and the College's Anglican heritage and connection to Bruton Parish Church. In addition, the chapel sacristy would be available to store religious symbols of any faith, which can be brought into the chapel as appropriate[6].

References

^ Official College description of the Wren Building
^ The Flat Hat student newspaper.

External link

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[1] Official College description of the Wren Building

[2] The Flat Hat student newspaper.

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