The past five years have rapidly devalued the meaning of the term “resistance.” The favorite moniker of today’s left wing — the resistance — is used to signify defiance. Previously, to resist was to take on the institutions, to make a stand for justice at great personal risk. Most resistance today looks nothing like the student protests of the Vietnam War or the Civil Rights movement.

Today, the ideological monolith of the university operates in lockstep with its student activist footsoldiers. The term “resistance” now encompasses the day-to-day efforts to punish any who stand apart. The current villain-of-the-week is none other than former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani has faced a reckoning recently by universities for his role as former President Donald Trump’s attorney in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Earlier this year, the law schools of both Drexel University and Middlebury College rescinded their honorary degrees previously awarded to Giuliani. 

Now, student leaders at Syracuse University are hoping to achieve the same by holding Giuliani accountable by pushing SU to rescind Giuliani’s honorary doctorate from the College of Law. Their grievances include his challenge of the 2020 election results, his performance as the mayor of New York City and that he “has advocated for really, really absurd things.”

But if saying “really really absurd things” were a crime punishable by rescinding a degree, then we would see Joe Biden’s Juris Doctor torched on the Quad for any number of blustering statements. 

The reality is that rescinding Giuliani’s degree has nothing to do with accountability. Liberal activists have graduated from simple mockery of their opponents to holding hostage the legacy of anyone on the other side of an issue.

Student Bar Association president Mazzy Kaila exposed the partisan nature of their ask when she said that the push to rescind Giuliani’s doctorate is a matter of the school’s reputation. By deferring the issue to the court of public opinion, the fate of one’s public image is placed in the hands of a hyper partisan mob. Deviate from the accepted liberal orthodoxy and you too could face a media hatchet job, with the institutions standing by to lend them a helping hand. Message received.

For students in the College of Law, the prospect of rescinding Giuliani’s degree is troubling. Carlos Negron, a student in the College of Law, said that students should be concerned about setting this precedent.

“One must ask,” Negron said, “if today an institution can pull back a degree from someone else, when can they do it to me?” 

The country has a social credit system that is entirely indifferent to genuine public service. We are the country that discredits men like Giuliani: the attorney who took on the Five Families and won, who also stepped up to be an American leader at a time when his country needed one. Giuliani, the man who many SU students don’t think is worthy of an honorary degree from the College of Law.

Student leaders should make the distinction between accountability and revenge. The decisions by Drexel and Middlebury have not improved the reputation of their law schools as they had hoped. By accepting these politically-charged demands and rescinding Giuliani’s degrees, they have set a dangerous precedent. If the College of Law wishes to maintain the confidence of its student body, then it should put this revenge campaign to rest.

Augustus LeRoux is a junior history major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at aoleroux@syr.edu.

Published on November 15, 2021 at 12:05 am