Responses to the College Republicans on Remembering 9/11: From the College President

Muhlenberg College Republicans,

Thank you and your student colleagues for your letter. I respect and appreciate the sentiment that caused you to compose it, though I must tell you I do not agree with much of its content.

With your letter, which is addressed to me personally but was posted to Facebook and sent to the Muhlenberg Weekly before it was delivered to me, you chose to make assumptions concerning my personal patriotism. You then presented those assumptions to the campus community without coming to me and asking me in person about my personal beliefs. You also made the assumption that those beliefs led to the administrative decision to cease the 9/11 memorials on campus. That’s very disappointing. As Muhlenberg students, you are expected to base conclusions not on speculation, but on data and critical thinking. I would have hoped that you would have reached out to engage me in a conversation about this subject before broadcasting opinions about me that are not based on evidence or inquiry.

Each month I hold open office hours, and my staff can attest to the fact that I see many students beyond those hours, which tend to fill quickly. I invite students to my home for dinners and I try to get out on campus and eat with students in the Wood Dining Commons whenever I can. Students can send me an email through my page on the College website. I try to be as open and accessible as I can, given the many responsibilities I must juggle as President of this fine institution. I wish you had discussed your concerns with me in person and tested your assumptions about my patriotism before proclaiming them as fact.

I can assure you, I take a back seat to no one when it comes to patriotism for our nation. When I arrived on campus in July 2015, I was informed in an early meeting with my senior staff that members from different segments of the campus community had been inquiring for several years as to why we were still having services commemorating 9/11, given the passage of time and the mounting numbers of other tragedies that were not being remembered on campus. Based on that input from the campus community, I made the decision to cease the bell tolling. As there seemed to be little campus interest in continuing the memorial service, the Chaplain did not plan a memorial service in 2015.

I did not reject a tradition simply to move in a new direction, as you assume in your letter. I listened to input gathered from members across the breadth of our community and made a decision based on that input. The bells did not toll last year and there was no memorial service. Consistent with the input I received previously, there was no groundswell of concern from the campus community regarding the cessation of these memorials.

Your letter did quote me correctly that I said to a student that many lives have been lost on many days in this country. Many unsuspecting groups of people, going about their business on a regular day, have been murdered—by terrorists or in other ways—and each incident is a tragedy that we should never forget. For example, we no longer hold commemorative services here at Muhlenberg in memory of those Americans killed during the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

My heart aches every Sept. 11, when I remember the loss our country endured that day in 2001, and I am angered by the changes that event has wrought in our country and in our world. But my heart also aches when I think of the dozens of attacks on U.S. citizens since 2001. I am reminded of the dead in Fort Hood, San Bernardino, the Boston Marathon, Little Rock and Orlando, the single greatest mass slaughter through gun violence in U.S. history. These are all examples of horrific events that we should never forget. I welcome the opinions and sentiments of all our students regarding how—and for how long—we should commemorate these and similar events here at Muhlenberg. Also, I encourage student organizations such as yours to plan and sponsor events related to causes about which you feel particularly strongly.

I have been looking forward to working with both the College Republicans and the College Democrats to help illuminate the issues of the coming election and to encourage our students to get as involved as possible, to advocate for the candidate of their choice, to register and to vote. I hope you will be interested in working with me to get students out to vote on Nov. 8, and to be as engaged as possible between now and then.

Sincerely, John I. Williams, Jr.

President