Ayers' Presence Pollutes University's Credibility

In the July/August issue of the Illinois Alumni magazine it was announced that "effective immediately, all Illinois alumni and students are granted membership in the University of Illinois Alumni Association." This means that anyone who attended the U of I at any location (Champaign-Urbana, Chicago, or Springfield) even for only a semester, or worked as faculty or staff, or even if they were classified as "friends" of the U of I are all included as members of the UIAA. This act swells the roster to 600,000 people.

They might as well have an all-inclusive policy now, because I am hereby publicly renouncing my life membership in the UIAA, as well as anything else having to do with the University (save my degree), because of my embarrassment and disgust over their continued employment of an unrepentant William Ayers as a professor of education. Read about the founder of the terrorist organization, Weather Underground, HERE with links to sources.

Clinton apologist, Lanny Davis, has equated Ayers to a murderer on more than one occasion, most recently on the Sean Hannity show on 8-26-08. Davis also defines a terrorist as one who kills civilians simply for political gain, and agrees that Ayers fits that definition.

And although I am grateful to the University of Illinois-Champaign for a quality education at a (then) reasonable price, and believe the Alumni Association an otherwise positive entity, I cannot continue to ignore the blatant disregard by the U of I to the fact that Ayers has publicly stated that he wishes the Weathermen had done more. More what? We can only assume from the context of the interview in which he stated this, that he meant more killing and mayhem through bombing police stations, the US Capitol building, and the Pentagon. I cannot sit idly by while my Alma Mater further legitimizes a murdering terrorist. If only the FBI had not botched it, he and his "partner," Ms. Dohrn, would be serving life sentences.

I call on other Illinois alumni to do likewise and renounce their memberships AND WITHHOLD FUTURE DONATIONS to the University of Illinois, if they have not already chosen to do so.