A need for balance in class

Blaine Taylor 

Towson University alumni 

This is in response to The Towerlight’s report by Bailey Hendricks Oct. 17, 2017, entitled “Ehrlich urges students to define their terms,” covering former GOP MD Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s most recent appearance on campus.

I think it’s great that he comes, and I trust that he’ll continue.

That having been said, I note that TU was and is a State-funded educational institution, and that the former Governor’s host these past two decades-plus has been TU professor Richard Vatz, a State employee paid by the State of Maryland.

As a TU grad of 1972, former SGA Senator and Presidential candidate, former Towerlight reporter, press aide to the former Governor’s predecessor in Congress, Democratic candidate, voter, citizen and former member of the TU Alumni Board, I now pose the same question to professor Vatz as I have in the past.

That is: has he ever invited either a sitting or former Democratic Governor of Maryland to speak to his classes? I think not. [Editor’s Note: Vatz has invited former Democratic Governor of Maryland Martin O’Malley to speak to his classes, but he never could. Additonally, Vatz has hosted Democratic politicians such as Senator Jim Brochin and Delegate Stephen Lafferty.] As it happens, we now have three living same whom he could invite and who might, indeed, come. They are: Harry Hughes, Parris Glendening and Martin O’Malley. If any or all have turned him down, then it’s a moot point, but if they have not, then I suggest that the premise of equal time, fair play and the teacher’s responsibility to expose his classes to both sides of the gubernatorial office far outweighs any parochialism or even laziness on the professor’s part.

He has an obligation that he is simply arrogantly ignoring in his usual bullheaded way. The fact that he is also partially the semi-official, public face of TU on TV almost weekly also makes it incumbent upon him to embrace fairness and equal time. Surely he must see this, but maybe not.

Then there is this mantra-like statement of his own in the article that I find simply amazing as to his possibly true feelings on the matter, and I quote: “Vatz said that Ehrlich has been his guest in his class twice a year for about 24 years, and that he likes him because his political views are similar to his own.” There you have it.

Inasmuch as TU now has a sitting president who both openly and publicly embraces condoning not enforcing federal immigration laws on campus as part of some wooly “sanctuary” extra-legality status for illegal aliens resident here, I am bypassing her in regards to getting first a legal opinion on the actions of professor Vatz, and then legal redress of same. I am already on record as stating that she has earned being fired. She should go.

Accordingly, I have sent via email this same missive to the State Attorney General at Annapolis for a legal opinion and possible legal action. If there is no legal case or redress, fine, but if so, I suggest that professor Vatz open his class to former Democratic Governors or retire, now. We either have fairness or we don’t. Right now, we don’t. The ball is in his court.

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