Rutgers University Rejects Calls to Fire President for His Remarks

While condemning his words, Rutgers University’s Board of Governors reaffirmed its support Friday for President Francis Lawrence, who came under fire for saying “disadvantaged” students lack the “genetic hereditary background” to perform well on standardized tests.

The board issued its statement after a private session and a sometimes raucous 3 1/2-hour public meeting during which it listened to about 50 speakers for and against Lawrence, who again apologized for his remarks.

“Take your bigotry back to the bayou, Fran, we don’t need it here,” Flavio Komuves, a recent graduate, said in the open meeting. Lawrence was a professor and administrator at Tulane University in New Orleans before he was named Rutgers president in 1990.

“I’m not going to allow the lynching of Fran Lawrence,” said Mary Davidson, dean of the School of Social Work, who is black and said that her great-uncle was lynched in Oklahoma.

Campus maintenance mechanic John McCutchen, who is black, asked to approach Lawrence.

“As a child of God, I forgive you,” McCutchen said, and the two men embraced.

Some who spoke in favor of Lawrence were loudly heckled. Emmet Dennis, a black professor of biological sciences, was derided as a “house slave” when he spoke in Lawrence’s support.

The United Students Coalition, which organized demonstrations Wednesday and Friday at the main campus in New Brunswick, demanded a meeting with Lawrence. Otis Rolley, a coalition representative, told the board that if it did not get a response by Monday it would turn to “alternative methods” to force a “dialogue.”

About 250 students gathered in a lounge on another floor of the Paul Robeson Campus Center to listen to speeches calling for Lawrence’s ouster and to watch the board meeting on closed-circuit television.

Lawrence gave no indication he would heed calls for his resignation, but apologized again for the remark, as he has since it became public early last week.