LUBBOCK, Texas – A small group of Texas Tech University faculty members is objecting to the school’s hiring of former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the grounds that he demonstrated ethical failings while in office.
Among those failings, according to the petition being circulated: frequently misleading Congress and the American people, denying the right of habeas corpus, and appearing to show more loyalty to then-President George W. Bush, a Republican, than to the Constitution. Gonzales stepped down amid the politically motivated firings of U.S. attorneys and an uproar over allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“His years in the White House were characterized by conduct which, whether or not it was illegal, demonstrated significant ethical failings,” the petition says of Gonzales.
Chancellor Kent Hance said Thursday that the petition targeting the hire will not deter him from having Gonzales on campus.
“I will not change my mind,” he said.
The chancellor said he did not hire Gonzales because of his political views and noted that, “if Eric Holder retires tomorrow, I’d try to hire him, too,” speaking of the current attorney general, who is a Democrat.
Walter Schaller, a tenured associate professor of philosophy who is circulating the petition, has said he does not expect it to affect Gonzales’ hire. But he said he felt it important to air faculty concerns that Gonzales might remain a professor beyond the yearlong teaching stint for which he has been hired.
