Wow! Trinity Washington University President Patricia McGuire Goes Off On Alumna Kellyanne Conway

Counselor to the President of the United States Kellyanne Conway enters a joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, 27 January 2017. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO

The University of Pennsylvania’s president has no comment about one of the Ivy League school’s most famous alumni, President Trump. Virginia Tech’s president has no comment about one of its most famous alumni, White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon.

The president of Trinity Washington University, though, has had plenty to say about one of its graduates. “Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway, Trinity Class of 1989, has played a large role in facilitating the manipulation of facts and encouraging the grave injustice being perpetrated by the Trump Administration’s war on immigrants among many other issues,” Patricia McGuire wrote recently.

University presidents used to be part of the national dialogue, decades ago when the demands of the job were less complicated and the need for fundraising less consuming. But it has long been unusual for a college to single out a graduate for criticism, especially as college and university presidents are expected to build community among a diverse group of students, faculty, staff and alumni, to foster pride in the institution, and to raise money and support from people on all sides of the political spectrum.

Because of the importance of alumni to fundraising, said Terry Hartle of the American Council on Education, “presidents tread very carefully. Losing the support of alumni is a very bad idea.”

But McGuire, the longtime president of the small women’s college in Northeast Washington, said she felt a moral imperative to speak out against the Trump administration — in particular for its policies on immigration and its lack of truthfulness — and Conway is not exempt from that.

Conway said by phone Friday she was surprised to find her alma mater’s social media feed full of partisan retweets and snarky comments. “It’s a disappointment to have the president of the university lift up other Trinity graduates who have a casual relationship with the truth,” she said, citing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as an example, “attack me, and never have the courtesy of calling or emailing me to ask what I meant on any given occasion.” McGuire had looked at her comments through the most negative lens possible, she said.

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SOURCE: Susan Svrluga 
The Washington Post