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During my third or so week of college at Marquette, unfamiliar with the Jesuits beyond the bare bones I had learned in my previous 12 years as a Catholic school student and my initial weeks as a Marquette student, I happened upon a J.U.S.T.I.C.E. presentation about the then-new Iraq War by one Simon Harak. I was in for a shocking anti-American hatefest on a level I wouldn’t have thought possible from a University that wanted to be considered at all serious.

I went with a notebook, as I do almost anywhere, in case I wanted to take notes. From the beginning I could tell that I was in for a presentation by a dark, evil man. As Harak’s imagination spilled from his mind and the power point presentation into Cudahy Hall, I wrote dozens of short-hand notes in my notebook. After, I stashed them away.

The shocking introduction to the Jesuits through an individual deeply possessed with the mission of propagandizing Saddam Hussein’s own rhetoric about his country obviously had an effect on me. While Harak showed up again two years later (while I was in DC, incidently), we did not have to see him again until last Spring, when he showed up on the Theology Faculty teaching THEO 001 and began to prepare for his activist outpost at Marquette, created last summer.

When Harak surfaced in 2005, I remembered my notes from September, 2003 but could not locate them. I tried again once news of Harak’s laughably hypocritical “Center for Peacemaking” formed, again in vain. Today, however, I’ve been cleaning out my old MUSG files and, ta-da, found it. They are brief, but informative.

For the record, I thought I’d transcribe my observations and my in-presentation observations. It will be significantly briefer than my preserved notes as I wrote in shorthand some of his comments and the relationship to his presentation nearly five-years later is not always readily apparent.

Simon Harak’s September, 2003 Iraq War presentation

Harak began with a peculiar comment that I did not write down, and since I want to be accurate I will just say that I am paraphrasing the following sentence. After everyone assembled, he said something to the effect of “I don’t find prayer very useful, but I think we should have a moment of silence.” May not have been those precise words, but Harak dismissed beginning with a prayer in favor of a “moment of silence.”

The following begin my written notes:

- Paints a picture of a fierce, uncontrollable military force against an innocent, defenseless Iraqi people. From the U.S. government point of view, “things have to be silenced.” If things have to be silenced how is it that Leftists like Harak all know “things”?

- Many dead body pictures. No surprise, no idea where they came from. Could be Saddam’s victims or simply more cherry-picked accidents by U.S. military to depict invasion as sinister. “People like you and me” were killed in Iraq — normal people? [Civilians?] Suggests that the U.S. indiscriminately attacks civilians.

- “Homes, schools, hospitals” were destroyed “in every city, every village.” [Echoing an earlier comment that the U.S. military had "unplug[ed] every hospital drug and blood refrigeration unit, every life support machine, every incubator, in the country.”]

- Due to sanctions held up by the Clinton Administration, “500 thousand children under the age of 5 were killed.” No source given. It is “against American law to give” Iraqis medicine. No, it’s against American law for you to contact and propagandize for a foreign dictator. [Daniel tackled well this aspect of Harak's propaganda work for the Hussein regime here.]

- [Interlude: you'll note the comedy of Harak recommending an international force take over Iraq in the above-linked Marquette Tribune story and the fact that the legitimate object of Harak's rath would have been the U.N., which instituted the sanctions itself. As John McAdams noted about Harak's consiracy theories, "One could not determine whether he lacked the intelligence to differentiate between the two theories, or was simply canny and willing to pander to whatever theory audience members happened to believe."]

- Shows pictures of starving and small children, states that the Allied flights over Iraq were “bombing water [facilities] on purpose to spread disease.” No mention of Saddam’s grip on commerce, preventing normal infusion of health care goods and services. Quotes Madeline Albright again [who I am beginning to think must be some kind of estranged celebrity for Harak.]

- The explanation for the war was “weapons of mass destruction” but “20 minutes before the invasion” it became “to liberate people.” The U.S. “bombed population centers” … shows more undated, unsourced pictures of people burying dead. People in the government “don’t want you to see” these pictures.

- More conspiracy theories about oil fields. U.S. “siezed oil fields right away.” Maybe because last time Saddam lit them on fire? [Again, McAdams: "He seemed to imply that Bush really went into Iraq “for oil.” He was unclear as to whether the point was to take control of Iraqi oil, or merely to keep oil flowing to industrial economies. One could not determine whether he lacked the intelligence to differentiate between the two theories" Harak may have given the same presentation on each occasion at Marquette.]

- The policy of the U.S. military was to “kill everything that moved.” Okay, then. The military faced a “human wave of resistance” and the military “cut them all down” [may be a reference to the "population centers" or even the "human shield" movements led by Harak's Saddam-propaganda groups.] The U.S. military killed people with “the same color as food packets.” [i.e., MRE's.]

- U.S. military used depleted uranium. Same conspiracy I’ve heard a hundred times. [McAdams debunks it here.] Shows more pictures of destruction; “Of course the military loves this.”

- Members of the U.S. military were “found looting” [I don't remember but this may have been about the famed museum non-story.] Islam has an “honor based culture” and thus looting violates this culture. Harak recommends that military members “don’t shake hands with Muslims” and “every move the U.S. makes is worse.”

- In the United States, “weapons is the number one export.” [Um, actually, "Among the top U.S. exports in 2006 were autos and auto parts, semiconductors, and civilian aircraft."] The United States is leading a “modern crusade.” The U.S. “economy is based on weapons.”

*******

Some brilliant thoughts from Harak, I know.

Amidst all of his anti-American invasion of Iraq, it is useful to note that Harak is famous for, among other insane commentary, supporting Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Harak doesn’t mind violence, even extreme violence; physical force just cannot be used at any time in support of the goals of the United States.

I don’t know if I ever did a “what the heck is going on with the chronology of the kidnappings” GOP3 post, but it really, really bothers me that the two individuals who were kidnapped earlier this semester were taken around midnight, the first discovered a couple hours after that and then the second a little after dawn, and no email was sent to students until 9am or 10am [Update: It was 10:29am] that morning, despite the fact that another student had been violently robbed and I would assume in contact with DPS/MPD beforehand and despite the fact that the freaking suspects were still at large!

We just got another email from DPS about another mid-afternoon robbery on campus:

An off-campus robbery within the 900 block of North 17th Street was reported to the Department of Public Safety at approximately 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21. During the incident, two male suspects approached the victim, a Marquette student. One suspect displayed a weapon and demanded personal property. The descriptions of the two male suspects were not specific. The victim was not physically injured.

The Department of Public Safety and Milwaukee Police Department officers were contacted and immediately responded to the scene. Victim services were offered to the student involved in this incident.

So, at 9:41pm tonight the Department of Public Safety thought it important to get out an email to students about a brazen daytime robbery basically in the middle of campus that includes armed suspects still at large. Wouldn’t it be prudent to inform students about at-large armed suspects sooner than six hours after a robbery, particularly one as bold as during the middle of the afternoon?

I ask this in all seriousness. We’re all aware that DPS has the capability of sending out text messages to students in the case of a “real” emergency (”Virginia Tech-style emergency” is the phrase that has been thrown about, I think). Obviously if someone is in Wehr Physics waving around a sidearm, a text message should be sent. But, I don’t understand why text messages are not being sent to students about crimes committed in the non-academic parts of campus.

Besides the near-rape of the Freshman girl by a homeless guy in the first-floor female bathroom of Raynor my Freshman year (Fall of 2003), there hasn’t been a major crime that I can remember happening on the academic portion of campus. Crime happens on Kilbourne, on Michigan, etc. If a crime is quickly resolved with suspects detained then yes, I think an email hours after suffices. But if two armed suspects rob students in the middle of the day, I think it makes sense to alert the student body sooner than six hours after it happens whether through email or texting.

The above email was seven sentences. Would it be that hard to get that out at 5pm or even 6pm? I’m concerned because if someone is able to get away with this during the middle of the day, it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that they would return, and potentially soon thereafter. Look at what happened at Virginia Tech — two homicides, and then two hours later 30 more homicides. It is possible for one or more criminals to strike, wait and then strike later.

From an email newsbrief:

A college administrator who is also a lawyer is the new vice president for student affairs at Marquette University. The appointment of Dr. L. Christopher Miller, vice chancellor for student affairs and administrative services at the University of Illinois at Springfield, is effective July 15.

Miller, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, earned his law degree at Campbell University and his Ph.D. in justice studies from Arizona State University. He has also studied at the Institute for Educational Management in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

“In Dr. Miller we have found a creative and energetic leader with broad-based experience in many aspects of student life,” Marquette President Robert A. Wild, S.J., said. “He has a reputation for collaboration and team building in the development of plans and programs to enhance the student experience.”

Good for MU to look outside for a position “smaller” than some of the bigger hires of late.

I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising.

For my first four years at Marquette, finals finished on a Friday and, unless you were waiting for the completely incompetent people running the Les Aspin Center to stop coming up with weather-related excuses for not sending in your grades, grades for your classes were made available on the web late afternoon on Monday.

Last semester, however, some elements of the bureaucracy shut down, particularly ITS it seems, and ITS announced through Checkmarq that grades would be delayed and perhaps available on Tuesday around noon (if not later, which is more likely the case). At the time the bureaucrats killed the link to Final Grades on Checkmarq.

One could at least get around the problem by going to one’s “unofficial transcript” where grades were posted. I have no idea what the problem was with posting grades through the “official grades” link if they were clearly available through the “unofficial transcript” link on Checkmarq.

Well, now ITS communicates through Checkmarq that grades will now be available on Wednesday at noon. I’m sure this will now be official policy. I’m not terribly surprised. The bureaucrats at state schools and elsewhere usually claim that it takes a full week after finals week concludes for grade to be available online. Don’t be surprised when it lengthens in the future.

The funny thing is that somewhere lurking in the back of my mind is some kind of agreement between the Academic Senate and the Associated Students of MU about when grades are supposed to be available online.

Update: In the comments section, reader “Liberal Feminist” has the URL for the unofficial transcript which allows you to view grades that have already been posted. Thanks, Liberal Feminist!!

The Gideons, an international fellowship of businessmen and professionals dedicated to Christian evangelism, primarily through Bible distribution (especially in hotels), line Wisconsin Avenue today. About 20 Gideons, generally older gentlemen in ties, are stretched out on both sides of the street from Gesu to Walgreens.

The willing passer-by will receive a green Pocket New Testament, complete with Psalms and Proverbs in the back.

You will be interested to know that the Gideons were founded in Janesville, Wisconsin.

So pause for a minute, grab a Bible, and thank them for the work they do for the Gospel.

Now that we’ve hired a provost and an athletics director, we’ve narrowed the major University leadership openings to five: deans of the Colleges of Business Administration, Nursing, Arts & Sciences, and Communication and vice president of Student Affairs.

Looks like we might be down another dean in the next month. From the Lafayette (Indiana) Journal and Courier:

William A. Henk, a candidate to become Purdue University’s new dean of the College of Education, said under his leadership, the college would focus on a lot of basics while being dynamic at the same time.

“You have to be bold. You have to be imaginative,” Henk told faculty and staff at an open forum Wednesday.

Henk, dean of the School of Education at Marquette University, is the last of the four candidates trying to succeed George Hynd, who left Purdue last year for Arizona State University. Henk said education needs to be the key to a university, even one that puts so much emphasis on engineering and science.

Does anyone think a move from Marquette to Purdue is moving up?

The Theology Department has called on the University to provide health benefits to adjunct professors. At the law school, we joke that “adjunct” is Latin for “has a day job.” But apparently for lots of adjuncts in other departments, they cobble together a living from teaching a number of classes adjunct at several different schools. This leads Eric Lombardi, columnist for the Marquette Tribune, to conclude:

Essentially the administration thinks it’s more important to pay a coach $1.6 million a year to teach boys how to bounce basketballs than to provide fair benefits to its professors.

My thoughts are these: The money is there and if we’re going to call ourselves Catholic and we’re going to teach Catholic doctrine, which emphasizes the value of human life, then we better be ready to back up that teaching.

My thought is this: the money is just not “there” because Mr. Lombardi says it is. The Athletics Department runs its own budget, and a cut in the coach’s salary is not going to result in more spending money on the academic side. Moveover, Mr. Lombardi first ought to figure out if a cut would cover the benefits he’s talking about - If we’re talking about 40 professors, plus their families potentially, that could be a huge outlay.

Maybe rather than a conversation about health benefits for adjuncts who teach full-time, we should be talking about making sure our adjuncts are just that, adjuncts, and that we have real, tenure-track faculty lines to teach the number of classes we need.

I, and others, have made the argument on occasion that we ought to look to other Jesuit and Catholic schools with greater student involvement on the governing board. However, in recent days it has become clear again that one ought not simply “follow the crowd” when it comes to Jesuit higher education:

In the push for a “gender resource center,” it was argued:

According to the recommendation, Marquette lacks a “clear comprehensive source” to report sexual harassment and is one of only three Jesuit universities in the U.S. that does not offer such a center.

In the push for a higher student activity fee, it was argued:

Among the committee’s recommendations was a gradual $7 increase to the $27 Student Activity Fee, a fee included in each semester’s tuition which helps fund MUSG. The recommendations passed the Senate earlier this month. Pappalardo, who chaired the committee, defended the increase. “We have the most student organizations of any other Jesuit school, but the lowest activity fee,” Pappalardo said.

In the push for a more relaxed policy on co-eds staying the night in University dorms, it was argued:

At Marquette, McMahon said he hears the argument all the time that other Jesuit schools allow more. He said he looked into this and found other Jesuit universities have similar policies, but no mechanism to enforce them.

The Facebook group “Petition to change Marquette University’s Overnight Visitation Policy” cites policies at Xavier, Creighton, and Georgetown.

So two points. The first is something that has been clear to me for a while but ought to be said: As much as we rail on Marquette for being liberal at times, the reality is that Marquette is more conservative than most Jesuit institutions. We are still a “Catholic, Jesuit university,” and not merely “in the Jesuit tradition.” We do not have a pro-choice group or an LGBT living community. Our campus paper does not have a sex column. We don’t offer “equitable” LGBT employee benefits. We won’t embrace the Vagina Monologues. Etc. While our faculty has its sore spots and is dominated by liberals, they are generally nice liberals. Neither our faculty nor our student body engages in the kind of out-of-line, bitter activity that we sometimes see elsewhere.

Second, trotting out the argument “But all the other Jesuit schools are doing it” simply won’t fly by me. That’s usually a ticket to being more liberal. We should look to the experience of other schools, try to see what works and what doesn’t, but we should foremost always think for ourselves.

My column in the most recent edition of The Warrior:

“Wear your blue and gold to weelcome Marquette’s new men’s baskletball coach”

The foregoing was the opening line in the Special News Brief from Marquette University announcing the hiring of new head men’s basketball coach Buzz Williams. I count three errors. Let’s hope it’s not an omen.

The hurry to get out the News Brief, and hence the lack of appropriate editing, is indicative of the way this entire hire has gone: rushed and garbled.

Even if it’s not all their fault, the blatant mishandling of Tom Crean’s departure has left fans and students casting a skeptical eye at the athletics department. To earn that trust back, the Department needs to act humbly and recognize that process matters.

At a press conference immediately following Crean’s departure, Athletics Director Steve Cottingham said, “We are not going to have a search committee. I think that the level that we’re at, it is a management decision within the university.”

They followed through on that pledge, turned around a very quick hire, and promoted Buzz Williams. The Williams pick appears to be driven by a short-sighted desire to keep a few key recruits for next year rather than a long-term vision for the program.

There was no search committee for Cottingham’s job either. When Bill Cords departed as AD well over a year ago, we were told that Cottingham’s number one job as interim AD would be to recruit a great successor. Fourteen months later, not a single interview had happened, even though over 60 eager and qualified candidates had applied. One day, Cottingham decided he thought he should stay on permanently, and a “management decision” was made that gave him the job.

The athletics department did empanel a search committee once in the last few years, for the hire of the men’s soccer coach in 2006. Student-athletes were selected to interview candidates and provide feedback. Cords made a “management decision” to hire Louie Bennett, and the search committee was not involved at all.

Allow me to further note that the search committee for the provost (at least there is one!) does not have any student members, so this problem is not just in the Athletics Department.

My point is this: Process matters. When people trust the management, it is easier for the management to make an executive decision. When trust has been bruised, however, then a committee process that includes all the stakeholders is important. Transparency is important. Take your time and think things through.

We talk often at Marquette about dialogue, empowerment, and community. Perhaps we would avoid both superficial and substantive mistakes if we followed a process that made stakeholders feel confident and included.

Tomorrow morning, Marquette University will announce that 9 or 10 month old Assistant Coach Brent “Buzz” Williams is the next Head Coach of Men’s Basketball.

There’s so much I or any of my fellow GOP3 bloggers could, and maybe even “should,” blog about the coaching situation (in addition to Justin’s post).

But it feels like one of those instances where everything else that could be said probably is elsewhere.

Which, for me, is Marquette’s best basketball fan site, MUscoop.

(I’m not saying this is what I want to happen, it’s just my prediction!)

Enjoy your lunch tomorrow.

Update: Actually, my prediction is that this will be announced Tuesday!