Rove’s presence stirs protest

Protesters comprised of University of Toledo students and local community members converged on Doermann Theater tonight. They held signs against the first speaker of this year’s Jessup Scott Honors College Lecture series, Karl Rove.

“I think it’s delightful that the Honors College is being represented by somebody that has no honor,” local community member Elsa Nadler said with sarcasm.

Nadler was one of about 20 people who came out to show they were against Rove’s speaking at UT.

Derek Ide, a second-year history graduate student, said he felt it was disgraceful for Rove to be allowed to speak on campus.

“Given Karl Rove’s role in pushing the Iraq war onto the American public, his constant efforts to create a propaganda campaign that led to a war that killed anywhere from half a million to a million Iraqis,” Ide said, “which was a very disgraceful thing to engage in and the fact that the university is hosting him reflects very poorly, not only on the university, but on all of us students who are looking to get out degrees from that university.”

The protestors stood along the entrance hall of University Hall, where they engaged members of the incoming crowd and distributed flyers.

Local community member Karen Carlisle said that she herself felt no negative feelings from the protesters.

“I thought the protesters were very orderly and they have the right to speak their feelings,” said Carlisle.

She also said the lecture was very well-balanced and politically natural.

“[Rove] presented some very important large scale items that this country has to face and he brought it to the forefront very nicely,” said Carlisle. “And I liked how he stressed that it doesn’t matter who gets the presidency or who owns congress these are issues that have to be addressed.”