KCCI.com, IA
08-03-07
ISU Professor Threatened After Questioning Campus Cross
Students Mixed On Issue
AMES, Iowa -- An Iowa State University professor said Friday that he won't be
silenced or intimidated.
That's after his letter to the editor sparked a response of several hateful e-mails.
Blumenfeld's letter questioned the display of a cross in the ISU chapel.
He has received messages telling him he should be fired and that he should
move out of the country.
Blumenfeld said it only proves his point about intolerance.
The Campanile, or the Memorial Union, are both symbols of ISU. But one
symbol, which few students know is on campus, has a professor speaking out.
"I don't know if a university campus is a place for the promotion of religion," said
Professor Warren Blumenfeld.
Blumenfeld is no stranger to this debate. He opposed hiring a spiritual advisor for
the ISU football team.
That's when he learned about the cross in the chapel. He said a Hindu student
who felt he couldn't speak up told him about it.
"Some of them have stuck notes under my door anonymously saying 'Thank you,
I applaud what you're doing. I can't speak out. I don't feel safe to do so,'"
Blumenfeld said.
Not all Hindu students on campus take offense to the cross.
"It doesn't offend me. I get to see a lot of crosses here and there, I mean, most
places. I am a Hindu, but that doesn't really bother me," said ISU student
Ramesh Kartic.
Many non-Christian students said they feel the university could be more
accepting of other religions.
"If other religious groups want to display their symbols, I think people shouldn't
have a problem with that. It should be live and let live," said ISU student
Ashutosh Shyam.
The cross is the most predominant symbol in the chapel, but etched in a glass
window is the Star of David and a menorah.
Some people on campus said that removing the cross goes too far.
"I think that's what this university was originally founded on, but there's other
things that can bother people, too, that aren't being removed," said ISU student
Whitney Holt.
"(It) doesn't bother me. I see it as religious expression and something we should
be able to do," said ISU student Robert Snook.
"It doesn't bother me that the cross is there. Like I said, I think it should be there.
I think in our public schools, we should have it, too," said Kristi Otto, who was
visiting the ISU campus.
ISU President Gregory Geoffroy responded with his own letter to the editor.
Geoffroy said he is looking at ways to display other religious symbols in the
chapel or finding the appropriate space for that expression.
The cross has been displayed since 1955, when the chapel was built.
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