In the Face of Racism, U. of Florida Chief Says All You Need Is Love

AP Images

In the throes of an increasingly familiar face-off between white supremacists and college leaders, W. Kent Fuchs, the University of Florida’s president, leaned on a word that is seldom heard from a public college administrator: Love.

More than once, Mr. Fuchs told students, faculty, and staff members that they could best combat the hatred espoused by Richard B. Spencer, the white supremacist who spoke on Thursday at the university, by loving one another. In a video posted on Twitter, he urged students to speak loudly about “our values of love.”

Later, he tweeted, “Love and good deeds always overcome hate and evil.”

Love and good deeds always overcome hate and evil https://t.co/I9d5BwhzEb

— W. Kent Fuchs (@PresidentFuchs) October 19, 2017

Under similar circumstances, public college leaders tend to mine the familiar lexicon of antiseptic inclusivity. “Tolerance” and “values” are two favorites. But Mr. Fuchs, who holds degrees in divinity and engineering, used plain, emotionally laden language more evocative of the 1960s protest movement and the ministry than the administrative suite.

This wasn’t an accident.

In the tense lead-up to Mr. Spencer’s event, the university adopted a highly personalized social-media strategy, saturating the digital landscape with messages that presented Mr. Fuchs as a voice of moral clarity. The president, who had been criticized for allowing Mr. Spencer to speak at the university, said he felt compelled to express compassion for the minority groups most affronted by Mr. Spencer’s presence and to appeal to the better angels of the campus and the surrounding community. That meant using the “L” word.

“I did feel that what Spencer was saying was actually the opposite of love,” Mr. Fuchs said in an interview on Friday. “People of color and our Jewish community, which is one of the largest in the nation, really felt hated by him. I felt it was important that I use the word.

“But second, and this is part of my divinity background, I really believe the way we will thwart his movement and his message is through greater good than him, being a loving people while he is one who tries to separate whites from other people. It is intentional. I have to be careful not to overuse it and trivialize it. But it is intentional.”

The president’s handling of the event was criticized by some professors and students, who said that Mr. Spencer’s presence posed a threat to safety and disrupted the university’s educational mission.

The university, after initially barring Mr. Spencer from speaking based on threats of violence, reversed course, saying credible threats had passed and that security could be provided. Mr. Fuchs estimates that the university spent $600,000 securing the event, and Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, declared a state of emergency to steer law-enforcement resources to Alachua County, where the university is located.

Mr. Spencer’s visit generated considerable trepidation, given the violence that ensued at the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville two months ago. A violent melee broke out between protesters at the University of Virginia and torch-wielding white supremacists, who were chanting “Jews will not replace us.”

Mr. Spencer’s talk at the University of Florida, while combustible and filled with vitriolic protests, passed without any serious violence. But three men, who identified themselves as Mr. Spencer’s supporters, were charged with attempted murder after firing shots at protesters.

University of Virginia leaders have been criticized for their handling of the torch rally, which administrators said caught them off guard, despite warnings of a large demonstration. Teresa A. Sullivan, the university’s president, endured particular criticism for some of her statements in the wake of the event. Like Mr. Fuchs, she had hoped Virginia’s students would simply not engage with the white nationalists, playing into their desire for confrontation. But after the confrontation happened, some campus activists saw Ms. Sullivan as overly cautious in her language, only using the word “racist” in her fifth public statement on the matter.

Mr. Fuchs showed no such reservations. In a column published on Friday in The Independent Florida Alligator, the university’s student newspaper, Mr. Fuchs began: “As I write this at nearly 11 p.m. Thursday, it’s been only a few hours since racist Richard Spencer spoke on UF’s campus and failed miserably to divide our community.”

Mr. Fuchs, speaking with The Chronicle, said he felt it was important to label Mr. Spencer as “racist.”

“I decided to use some very strong language in talking about him,” he said, “that would communicate more than he was just a controversial speaker, more than he had ideas that we didn’t like.

“Although I told people to shun him, I do believe it’s really important they understand who he is. He’s not a usual controversial speaker. He is an individual who has a certain message that is just totally contrary to what universities represent, and ours in point. Some of that language makes our general counsel a little uncomfortable, but I felt strong about it that it was necessary.”

In Mr. Fuchs’s ideal world, Mr. Spencer would have held court in the university’s Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts with an audience of none. That is not what happened. Protesters showed up, screaming profanities and shouting down Mr. Spencer. He yelled back and dismissed them as “grunting morons.”

It was not a high-minded seminar. But nor was it a melee, which is what the university had most hoped to avoid.

Did Mr. Fuchs’s message of love penetrate? Or did he just get lucky? That’s anybody’s guess.

“The outcomes of events like this are based a lot on just good fortune or bad fortune,” Mr. Fuchs said.

“Those that did protest, against my recommendations, still worked hard not to get involved in violence,” he continued. “We all are breathing a sigh of relief.”

Jack Stripling covers college leadership, particularly presidents and governing boards. Follow him on Twitter @jackstripling, or email him at jack.stripling@chronicle.com.