ST. PAUL Minn.
Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu has notified the University of St. Thomas that he’ll accept an invitation to speak on campus next spring, but only if the university reinstates Cris Toffolo as director of the Justice and Peace Studies Program.
Toffolo said she was dismissed from the leadership position Aug. 1 in part for insisting that Tutu be invited to St. Thomas. The Rev. Dennis Dease, the university president, has said she was not removed because of any private or public disagreement with his decision not to invite Tutu to campus.
However, Toffolo on Monday provided the Star Tribune of Minneapolis with a copy of the termination letter she received on Aug. 1 from Thomas Rochon, executive vice president and chief academic officer at St. Thomas.
In the letter, Rochon accused Toffolo of making “deep distortions” of Dease’s position by writing Tutu, claiming that Dease had “denied (Tutu) the right to speak” when Dease had only declined to issue an invitation to Tutu to speak on campus. “You further stated that Father Dease has claimed that Archbishop Tutu engages in hate speech,” Rochon wrote.
“I find this to be a highly unethical set of actions that compromises my ability to continue to trust you with administrative responsibility.”
Toffolo retains her position as an associate professor of political science at the university.
