Frank Luntz, University of Pennsylvania graduate and former professor, has decided to withdraw a University of Pennsylvania scholarship that sends students to Washington, DC that was named after his father. The report comes from The Daily Pennsylvanian, an independent UPenn paper.
By now, you have all heard about Luntz's little talk at the University of Pennsylvania last Monday. You know, the one where UPenn junior Aakash Abbi secretly recorded Luntz talking about Rush Limbaugh et. al. and released it to Mother Jones Magazine? Yeah, that one.
Well, apparently, Luntz is really ticked off. In addition to defunding the scholarship, he has vowed never to speak at the school again. (note: Luntz is scheduled to speak on a panel during the university's graduation weekend)
"I can't imagine a speaker coming to Penn and being so open. I can't imagine a speaker coming to Penn and being so candid. Frankly, I think it'll have a chilling effect on whether speakers do or don't come. I wish it didn't."
“When I was a student, we honored the requests of our professors and speakers. When I was a professor at Penn, students honored my requests for confidentiality in return for a real insider’s view of what was going on. I’m very disappointed that at Penn, that trust between students and speaker is gone.”
On the off chance that you missed it ...
In order to get some flavor of how the incident is going over on the UPenn campus, I recommend reading two guest columns in
The Daily Pennsylvanian. The first is written by president of the university's College Republicans,
Arielle Klepach. The second is
Mr. Abbi's response.
Skim through the comments, it makes for interesting reading. The students seem to be lining up in two camps, the first laments the lack of civility and worries about getting future speakers while the second feels that Luntz was speaking at a public forum and should not have expected any privacy for his remarks.