Dear Feast Members:

I hope the end of the semester is treating you well (or at least, as
well as one can expect at this time of year).

By now you may well have heard of the abhorrent treatment Dr. Jodi
O'Brien received at the hands of Marquette's President, Fr. Robert
Wild.  If not, you can get a quick sense of what's happening here:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/93301809.html

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/11/catholic

Protests by faculty, staff, students, and alumni are ongoing, but at
this point, it is difficult to see how this damage can be undone. I,
along with many of my colleagues here, find myself very concerned
about the future of progressive, anti-colonial, feminist, anti-racist,
and queer research and teaching at Marquette.

I am sending this letter mainly to let you know about this injustice,
and to assure you that it is being resisted.  The next couple of weeks
will be crucial to this effort.  If you would like to be kept abreast
as events unfold, or participate in some way, let me know. A secondary
impetus for contacting you is to assure you that the actions of the
administration are not condoned by the faculty or student body as a
whole, a message I am particularly keen to get out before our graduate
students go on the market next couple of years (indeed, I am proud to
say that student protest efforts are currently being lead by philosophy
students). Among the myriad harmful consequences of these events, it
would be especially tragic if the job prospects of our students working on feminism, race theory,
and/or queer theory were harmed.



In the short term, if you would like to let Fr. Wild, and the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Darren Jackson, know that this behavior is unacceptable, I encourage you to contact them.  Sadly, my understanding is that email has proven an unreliable way to reach them, so I include their snail-mail addresses. My colleague, Nancy Snow, who has become the main organizer of the resistance efforts, has recommended that letters be sent by certified or registered mail, and marked "personal and confidential", in order to assure that the right people actually see them.

In solidarity,

Mike


Dr. Michael J. Monahan
Director, Core of Common Studies
Marquette University
414-288-8812

Rev. Robert A. Wild, S.J.
President, Marquette University
Office of the President
Marquette University
PO Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201

Mr. Darren R. Jackson
Chair of the Marquette Board, Bus Ad '86, President and Chief Executive Officer, Advance Auto Parts
Advance Auto Parts Corporate HQ
5008 Airport Rd.
Roanoke, VA  24012
Ph. 540-362-4991
Fx.  540-561-1448