Fellow Manhattan College alums want Giuliani stripped of honors
Graduates of Rudy Giuliani’s alma mater want the school to punish him for inciting a mob that ransacked the Capital building by taking back an honor it bestowed on the former mayor more than 20 years ago.
More than a dozen Manhattan College alums plan to make their scorn known in a letter calling on school President Brennan O’Donnell and Board Chairman Kenneth Rathgeber to revoke the De La Salle Medal, which Giuliani received when he still served as New York City’s mayor.
“The De La Salle Medal has been conferred annually by the college’s Board of Trustees to honor executives who exemplify the principles of excellence and corporate leadership. Giuliani has demonstrated contempt for these principles, and for the values and traditions of Manhattan College,” the letter states. “Mr. Giuliani’s conduct tarnishes the name of Manhattan College, the tradition of LaSallian educational principles and our proud history of almost two centuries in New York City. Giuliani’s leadership in the pernicious attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election already brought shame to the college.”
Before pro-Trump, right-wing agitators tore through the Capital in a rampage that left five dead, Giuliani once again disputed the election results and urged the mob to take matters into their own hands.
“If we are wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we’re right a lot of them will go to jail,” Giuliani said Wednesday. “So let’s have trial by combat.”
The former mayor has already come under fire from Manhattan College. Two days ago, O’Donnell publicly denounced Giuliani, who graduated from the school in 1965.
“His conduct as a leader of the campaign to de-legitimize the election and disenfranchise millions of voters has been and continues to be a repudiation of the deepest values of his alma mater,” he wrote.
A copy of the draft letter from alumni, which has not yet been sent to administrators at Manhattan College, bears the signatures of 13 former students and faculty.
Ron Herzman, a SUNY Geneseo English professor and Manhattan College alum who signed on, said in an email that the letter “speaks clearly to the issues and our concerns.”
