Thousands at Stanford Protest Adding Rumsfeld to Hoover Institution

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Many students and faculty at Stanford University are protesting plans to bring former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the Hoover Institution next year as a distinguished visiting fellow.

As of Monday, over 3,000 people had signed their names to an open letter and online petition calling Rumsfeld’s appointment “offensive.”

Stanford professor Robert Polhemus told CBS 5 that the architect of the Iraq War is far from distinguished. "He's a failure. He's incompetent and it's a blow to Stanford to have such a failure called a distinguished fellow," said Polhemus. "It associates Stanford with incompetence, with kind-of a sleazy operation, a right-wing operation, without any checks.”

An administrator argued in a statement published in the Stanford Daily that “the university is a place of free expression of ideas, and there are some ideas that generate controversy. But that's not a reason not to have those ideas expressed."

However, those who oppose Rumsfeld’s appointment claim that the issue isn’t free speech. They said they would welcome Rumsfeld to make a speech on campus, but oppose his being associated as a member of the Stanford University community.

Rumsfeld will serve on a task force involving national security, ideology and terrorism at the Institute.

(RdD)