Universities Weblog

(Source: Roger Williams University)

A racial slur uttered by the board chair at Roger Williams University has thrown the institution's leadership into a tizzy. This isn't the first time the race card has been dealt at RWU; not long ago, the campus drew attention when a few students tried to create a scholarship for white students. Now this.

From InsideHigherEd:

Roger Williams University announced last week that its board chair of nearly 40 years, Ralph R. Papitto, a major donor for whom the law school is named, was retiring from the board. The press release praised Papitto's "visionary leadership" and said that he considered the diversification of the board as one of his greatest accomplishments.

What the press release doesn't say is that the board today consists only of white men. Nor does it say that the board's two women and one other man were just ousted - after the three demanded Papitto's resignation for using the slur "nigger" in a board meeting.

The board turmoil went public this weekend when one of the ousted female trustees told her story to The Providence Journal. In interviews with Inside Higher Ed on Sunday, that trustee, Barbara Roberts, and Papitto presented very different views of what is going on at Roger Williams. Roberts described a board beholden to Papitto and unable to act when he crossed a basic line of decency. Although Papitto has now left the board, she said the university got rid of the trustees who had raised the issue, heaped praise on Papitto, and plans to honor him in perpetuity with its law school name.

"It's disgusting. His name is still on the law school - a known racist and anti-Semite," she said. (There are other charges about comments Papitto has made about Jews, which he denies.)

Papitto, 80, on Sunday admitted using the slur in the board meeting, but said that he is not a racist or anti-Semite and that he doesn't know why he used the word. He said that Roberts was always "agitating" for more diversity on the board and he questioned the loyalty of trustees for talking about the situation. He compared himself to don imus, whose radio career was destroyed after he used slurs to talk about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

Looks like new leadership is in order.

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