Thursday, September 10, 2009
Chapman University Loves Pain
Education / Politics Jay Youngdahl — Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 9:25 AM
The folks that run Chapman University sure know how to pick them, first John Yoo and now the spanking Mike Duvall.
Last year Chapman gave sanctuary to torture lawyer John Yoo, naming him the 2008-9 Fletcher Jones Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law. Now it seems that in 2000 the university gave its "Ethics in America" award to disgraced Republican state Assemblyman Mike Duvall for his "demonstration of the highest standards of ethical integrity." Whatever one thinks of Duvall's sexual interests, bragging about them to a buddy on the Assembly's Ethics Committee is hard to classify as ethical. But at least we hear that Duvall has resigned from the Assembly as he wants to put his family first.
I guess the folks at Chapman are just into pain.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: With regard to Mary Platt's request for a correction, numerous stories and press releases about numerous recipients of the "Ethics in America Award" describe the award as being presented "in conjunction with the Passkeys Foundation and Chapman University." Are we to believe that every one of these stories is incorrect?
For instance, in 2003, the company Sonance was presented the award and issued a press release that attributed the award jointly to the foundation and Chapman University. And that year the award wasn't even given out at the university, but at the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach.
Ditto New Century Financial Corp., Insight Health Services Corp., Kingston Technology, CWS Capital Partners, Coach John Wooden, and many more recipients. All of them join Duvall himself in attributing their award to Chapman University.
According to a press release on the Insight web site, "the Passkeys Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to fostering and valuing education among children, youth and adults, in partnership with Chapman University's Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics, established the Ethics in America Awards in 1996."
Have you send correct requests to all of these companies and individuals, Ms. Platt? -- Stephen Buel, editor
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That's very cute, Jay, and the story fairly drips with delicious irony -- except it is totally in error.
Chapman University did NOT present the "Ethics in America" Award to Duvall. Chapman does not even have an award that goes by that name. That award was presented in 2000 by the Passkeys Foundation to Duvall at an event that happened to be held on the Chapman campus. The university allows many outside organizations to rent or borrow rooms or auditoriums for their events, and we cannot be held responsible for the awards that another organization happens to hand out on our property. The AP story that went out on Duvall the other day erroneously reported that this was Chapman's award, and we have sent them the correction but have yet to hear that they have corrected it. In the interest of accuracy, we ask that you at least issue a correction. Thank you.
Mary Platt, Director of Communications and Media Relations, Chapman University
As if Chapman should have had a crystal ball to know that details of Mike Duvall's private indiscretions. Perhaps Jay Youngdahl should take to task every university or law school that has ever bestowed an ethics award on anyone who later acted unethically!
As an alum of Chapman Law School, I am proud that the school gave last year had the great human rights law scholar Richard Falk as a distinguished visiting professor: http://www.chapman.edu/law/faculty/aitken_visiting.asp
The folks at Chapman are not "just into pain". Rather they're into providing a stimulating and challenging legal education that is open to a wide diversity of perspectives.
Perhaps Jay Youngdahl should not be so sanctimonious. Our friends in the Obama administration have continued to support the so-called "Boeing torture flights" in federal court, have continued with the practice of extraordinary rendition to countries that will likely inflict tortures much more severe than waterboarding, and have continued to outsource interrogations to Blackwater and other private mercenaries. Perhaps Jay Youngdahl and the Obama administration are just into pain and hypocrisy.
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