The White House Rose Garden may seem an odd place to illustrate the vacuum of moral leadership in higher education in this troubled year of 2020. But a September 26 gathering of college presidents and faculty, religious leaders, and public officials celebrating the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court devolved into a cautionary tale of bad judgment and leadership failure all around, and especially for the attending academics.
Bad enough that the maskless University of Notre Dame president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, and at least 10 other attendees are now quarantined with Covid-19. It does not diminish our fervent hopes for their speedy and complete recovery to ask what in heaven’s name so many presumably smart people thought they were doing at the White House that afternoon as they crowded together without masks in defiance of public-health regulations, both on the lawn and indoors at a reception. Photos and videos of the event show lots of handshakes, hugs, and even, unbelievably, kisses — as if the participants all had amnesia about the months of grief and deprivation in the face of the homicidal microbes that have killed more than 210,000
Americans and sickened millions.
Pastors going maskless on Saturday can hardly preach about the sanctity of life on Sunday.
Ironically, the faith leaders were there because of their claims to “pro life” leadership. They hailed the nomination of Judge Barrett as their great victory at the intersection of politics and religion. Their behavior was the opposite of favoring life,
however, as their flouting of public-health rules invited infection. Pastors going maskless on Saturday can hardly preach about the sanctity of life on Sunday.
Neither can a college president expect students to follow the rules that he fails to uphold. In a subsequent letter to the Notre Dame community, Father Jenkins apologized for not wearing a mask, explaining that after he tested negative at the door of the event, the White House staff said he could remove his mask. He wrote, “I regret my error of judgment in not wearing a mask during the ceremony and by shaking hands with a number of people in the Rose Garden. I failed to lead by example, at a time when I’ve asked everyone else in the Notre Dame community to do so. I especially regret my mistake in light of the sacrifices made on a daily basis by many, particularly our students, in adjusting their lives to observe our health protocols.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed harsh and unforgiving sacrifices on people not as famous or powerful as those gathered in the Rose Garden. As I looked at the photos of that elite group, I could not help but think of the millions of school children unable to sit in their classrooms because of the pandemic. I thought of the thousands of high-school and college seniors denied the joys of real graduations. I thought of the deep and pervasive grief coursing through the families and communities of the 210,000 dead, so many dying alone without the comforting touch of loved ones, with survivors bearing the uniquely awful pain of not even being able to gather for funerals. I thought of the courage of so many front-line health-care heroes, the nurses and doctors sometimes forced to wear makeshift PPE because of a lack of adequate supplies. I thought of the grand weddings made small, the laid-off waiters of shuttered restaurants, the desperation of parents who are essential workers risking their health in low-wage jobs to keep food on the table, racing home at odd hours to help their kids keep learning at kitchen tables where computers and internet access are spotty or rare.
Surely the luminaries in the Rose Garden were not contemplating such somber thoughts as they applauded the nomination of their friend and colleague Judge Barrett to the high bench. Seduced by the awesome power of a White House invitation, they basked in the privilege of a moment we might not have even noticed in normal times. But these are not “normal” times. These guests, each powerful in his or her own way, betrayed their responsibilities to care for others when they took off their masks at the behest of a White House that has been notoriously flagrant in its violations of fundamental public-health protections.
Truth be told, the academic attendees parked more than their masks at the door. Bad example comes in many forms, including complicit silence in the face of official wrongs. This is an administration that has deliberately and with malice waged a deadly war against medical and public-health evidence about the pandemic, dishonoring doctors and epidemiologists by mocking their advice and excluding them from decision-making roles, even going so far as attempting to silence them. The unmasked presence of the academic leaders in the Rose Garden gave tacit consent to the silencing of those who have tried to save lives by providing correct information.
Higher education is the great counterweight to government in a free society; we academic leaders must use our freedom to stand up to the authoritarian demagogue who seeks to silence all voices but his own. This is an administration that has repeatedly denied climate science; that has inflicted grave harm on our immigrant students and still threatens them daily; that continues hideously inhumane practices against refugees and families at the border; that has rejected principles favoring life by reviving the federal death penalty; that has breathed new life into the forces of white supremacy while refusing to admit the suffering of racial hatred by saying aloud that Black Lives Matter; that has opened an investigation into Princeton because that university truthfully admitted a history of racism; that has banned educational programs about systemic racism and unconscious bias not only in federal agencies but also among federal contractors, which includes most colleges.
While waiting for the ceremony to begin, did any of the academics present take a moment in those friendly tête-à-têtes with senior administration officials to whisper a contrary thought about these policies and practices? To sit maskless and silent in the face of this administration’s record is to give tacit approval to its worst offenses against human dignity. So far in this weirdly unspooling political moment, the risk of speaking out is still only the risk of not getting another invitation to the Rose Garden. Face time with the powerful is not the goal; speaking truth to power should be.
The legendary late Notre Dame leader Father Ted Hesburgh wrote on being a university president that, “The greatest gift a president can give his students is the example of his life.” We presidents receive many glamorous invitations that might seduce us into complicity with powerful hosts whom we must challenge. We must never forget that our ultimate stewardship is not to our hosts or donors or social circles, but rather, to our students because they are the ones who carry the true mission of the university into the world for the benefit of future generations. Our first and last obligation is simply this: to teach our students well by the force of our example.
