College Of Charleston Students, Faculty Protest New President Over Confederate Ties

Students and faculty at the College of Charleston in South Carolina are protesting their new president over his history as a confederate sympathizer, the Chicago Tribune reported.

On Tuesday night, the faculty Senate issued a unanimous vote of no confidence in the choosing of Lieutenant Governor Glenn McConnell while students held signs reading "This is 2014, not 1814" during a protest.

"Will students and faculty of color believe that they are welcome and valued at an institution whose president participates in re-enactment?" said faculty Senate Speaker Lynn Cherry.

McConnell, a longtime state legislator who once owned a Confederate memorabilia store, graduated from the College of Charleston in 1969. However, as MSNBC notes, he has no experience working in higher education.

Additionally, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began circulating a picture, taken in 2010, of McConnell dressed in a Confederate uniform aside two black people dressed as slaves.

However, McConnell claims he's just a history buff and wants to help diversify the school's population -- despite fighting to keep the Confederate flag at the statehouse in 2000.

"If you criticize me for loving history, that's a criticism I'll have to bear," he said in a telephone interview with the Tribune. "To know where you're going, you have to know where you've been."

McConnell supporters claim he could convince the state to give the college more funding, especially after they underwent a $52,000 cut for issuing gay-themed literature to incoming freshman.

"To me, the deeper issue is whether Lt. Gov. McConnell is a racist, as some claim," G. Lee Mikell, vice chairman of the college's Board of Trustees, wrote in the Post and Courier on Tuesday. "I am absolutely convinced he is not."

Real Time Analytics