Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
Petitions circulated by Montana Tech professors and students, asking the Butte school to rescind invitations to this spring’s commencement speakers, were sent to Montana University System officials on Monday.
Greg Gianforte
Tech professor Pat Munday, one of the leaders of the drive, said Wednesday that he had not heard back from the three recipients of the petitions — Tech Chancellor Don Blackketter, University of Montana President Royce Engstrom and Paul Tuss, interim chair of the Montana Board of Regents. Tech is affiliated with UM.
Munday said about 400 people signed the petitions, which oppose having the commencement speech delivered by Greg and Susan Gianforte of Bozeman.
The husband-and-wife team is scheduled to speak at the Montana Tech commencement on May 17, while only Greg Gianforte is to speak at the Rocky Mountain College commencement in Billings on May 3.
The online petitions circulated by Montana Tech faculty and students call the Gianfortes a poor choice because of their support for creationism and the use of public funding for private schools and their opposition to civil rights protections for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender people.
Munday, a professor of science and technology studies who has been at Montana Tech for 24 years, said to see students there “voicing any opinion at all” has been pretty surprising.
“Montana Tech is the most ride-for-the-brand place that you can find,” he said.
Munday also said that while it is impossible to say how many of the petition signers were actually affiliated with Montana Tech, a majority of them live in Montana and many of those who also chose to include comments identified themselves as Tech alumni.
A two-page statement attached to the petition says the undersigned are “deeply disturbed” that the Gianfortes were asked to speak at Montana Tech.
“Their creationist beliefs, homophobic activism, and support for draining money from public schools to fund private Christian schools all make Gianfortes a poor choice as commencement speakers,” it says.
The statement goes on to detail the objections, many of which have been spelled out in previous news stories, on this site and others.
It also says that inviting the Gianfortes damages the school’s credibility. The Gianfortes’ words and actions have demonstrated “contempt for public education, an anti-scientific attitude, and a lack of respect for gay persons, all which are in opposition to the professed mission and vision of Montana Tech and the Montana University System,” it says.
There was little reaction on the Rocky Mountain College campus to news that Greg Gianforte would be the commencement speaker, but some members of the Billings community did register their displeasure with college President Bob Wilmouth.
After meeting with Rocky’s Faculty Executive Committee in early April, Wilmouth announced that Gianforte would speak as scheduled on May 3.
Wilmouth has said previously that he was not aware of Gianforte’s political or social views before extending an invitation to him. He also said that Gianforte, who made his fortune in computer science, had agreed to speak only on the importance of education and achieving post-college success.
Munday said Blackketter, the chancellor at Tech, was similarly unaware of Gianforte’s non-business activities. Munday said he was “astounded” by the “ignorance of Montana social and political issues” on the part of Blackketter and his advisers.
“This kind of thing is totally avoidable if he would just involve faculty and staff,” Munday said. “Anyone with even a superficial knowledge of Montana politics” would have been aware of the Gianfortes’ extremism. “It’s just downright embarrassing,” he added.
Peggy Kuhr, UM’s chief communications officer, said Engstrom had received the petition and “he has no plans to act on it.” Blackketter and Tuss were also asked to comment but had not responded as of Wednesday afternoon. If they do respond, their comments will be added to this story.
UPDATE: Tuss emailed this response late in the day:
“I think it’s likely that all of us on the Board of Regents have read the press stories about this subject, and I certainly understand the controversy. Commencement speakers have probably caused controversy in America for over 300 years, for various reasons. Chancellor Blackketter has already fully and publicly explained his reason for asking the Gianfortes to talk about technology and entrepreneurship. Obviously, people have every right to agree or disagree with that rationale. That’s how it goes with commencement speakers – and there is always another one next year.”
