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Senior Class President Ty’Chell Poindexter: You Belong Here!

President's Blog: Senior Class President Ty’Chell Poindexter: You Belong Here!

President Poindexter speaks to the resilience of Trinity Women: "We represent women who have faced barriers but refused to allow those barriers to define their future."

Remarks of Senior Class President Ty’Chell Poindexter

On the Occasion of the Cap and Gown Ceremony

October 24, 2026 in Notre Dame Chapel

Good morning, President McGuire, Trinity Washington University, faculty, staff, family, friends, and most importantly my beautiful Gold Class sisters. My name is Ty’Chell Poindexter and I have the honor of serving as the president of the Gold Class of 2027. Wow, it’s hard to believe we have reached this point in our journey and we are on the cusp of graduation and achieving a goal that we have set for ourselves. The great author, poet, and activist, Dr. Maya Angelou, once stated, “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” I will use those words as inspiration to shape my brief greeting to you today.

Gold Class we made it, we are here! Today, as I stand here before you I cannot help but to reflect on our collective journey. In this beautiful chapel many of us received our freshman medal as we signed the honor code and today in this same chapel we are leaving as scholars attaining senior status. Some of us may have begun four years ago, some five, or maybe even longer but regardless of the length of time it took you to get here, you have made it this moment in time. Our journey has not been perfect, and it has not always gone according to plan. But through every challenge we have continued to show up for not only ourselves but our sisters we have gained here at Trinity.

Each of us has a story and I acknowledge that no two are the same. We have experienced illness, stress, burnout, and doubt. Some of us have had to balance school while being caregivers, parents, employees, and students all at the same time. Even after these experiences we still found a way to show up for ourselves, make it to class, completing assignments, and pursue our dreams. But look at us, we are still here giving it our all!

Gold Class we are the true definition of resilience. We are more than just peers, we are women who have uplifted one another, who have witnessed each other’s growth, victories, and challenges. We represent women who have faced barriers but refused to allow those barriers to define their future. Every sacrifice, every tear, every late night, and every moment we doubted ourselves has brought us to this very moment.

As your Class President, I want you to know that I am proud of us as determined women; we have come so far, and even through our challenges we continued, when it was hard and we struggled to see a clear path for ourselves- but most importantly we never gave up. As we continue on this journey to graduation, I want every woman here to know that you earned your place here, you belong here, so yes this journey may have been challenging but keep going you got this because your future is worth fighting for.

In closing, I will leave you with this quote from First Lady Michelle Obama that resonates with me and I hope will inspire you, too. “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.” Our strength has carried us this far, so let’s keep pushing, keep believing, and keep showing up- not for only ourselves but for the women beside us. Next stop, graduation! Congratulations to my fellow sisters in the class of 2027!

Thank you.

Educated Women Can Change the World

President's Blog: Educated Women Can Change the World

Trinity continues its oldest tradition of educating women who can change the world! Congratulations, Seniors, on the occasion of receiving your caps and gowns!

(Student Government President Millie Okoro ’27 leads the senior procession for the Cap and Gown Convocation on Saturday, October 24, 2026, photo by Timothy Russell)

Educated Women Can Change the World

Remarks for Cap & Gown Convocation 2026

President Patricia McGuire

Earlier this semester, our award-winning Trinity Times published several important stories that lift up the voices of Trinity students in important ways.

In one recent story, three students with Nigerian roots talked about the importance of education for women.  Millions of young girls in Nigeria do not have access to education, and the impact on their families and economic circumstances is devastating.  Like all of our students, our Trinity students with Nigerian heritage are here to change their own lives and those of their families and communities.

Princess Garuba, a sophomore on her way to a Nursing career, says that, “Education can … help break the cycles of poverty. When women earn more income, families have better access to housing and food. Better nutrition leads to better long-term health.”

Millie Okoro, a senior and our student government president, reflected in this way:  “Educating girls has a ripple effect across economic and social development. When girls are educated, workforce participation increases, which boosts economic growth. Child marriage and maternal mortality rates tend to decrease. Families invest more in health, nutrition, and future education.  Education also shifts cultural expectations and it gives girls agency, decision-making power, and long-term stability.”

Esther Joseph, a junior biology major, sees it this way:  “…girls’ education has a major impact on national development because it affects health, economic growth, and social stability all at once.  When girls are educated, communities see lower poverty, better healthcare outcomes, and stronger leadership. It’s one of the most powerful tools for long-term national progress.”

If you listen carefully, you can hear the cheers of our Trinity Founders, Sisters Julia McGroarty and Mary Euphrasia Taylor, echoing across 12 decades of women’s education at Trinity.  The words of our students today are infused with the wisdom of the courageous women who, in 1897, saw that women in this country, in this city, did not have equal access to a great higher education and so they decided to do something about it.  They knew that educated women could change the world.  They set about the very hard task of founding the nation’s first Catholic college for women; they faced considerable opposition from men who said that women should not go to college, that college would impair women’s health, maybe impair their childbearing ability, maybe make them ambitious beyond being good wives and mothers, which is certainly a sacred calling for most women, but not all that we women can do.

Know what?  Some men are still saying things like that in some of the highest offices and darkest corners of our nation; some men are still enshrining that misogynist attitude toward women in the policies of some nations around the world, as our students of Nigerian heritage and other nations know too well.

Some men and politicians are saying and doing things today that make it clear that exclusion from educational opportunity is still a real problem in this country.  There’s a war against programs that lift up persons who have been historically marginalized in higher education on the basis of race, gender, nationality and other characteristics.  The political misuse of civil rights laws to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is limiting opportunities for Black and Brown students across the nation.  Right now, the current political administration has sued every state in the country that welcomes undocumented students into public universities at in-state tuition rates, including UDC.  This cruel campaign is robbing highly talented students of educational opportunities that would benefit not only the students and their families, but their communities and our nation.

As a private Catholic university, Trinity welcomes and supports many undocumented students in partnership with organizations like TheDream.US; we cherish the large diversity that our immigrant community brings to our campus.  Yet, as another recent Trinity Times story recounted when considering the anti-immigrant rhetoric of our current president, we know that our immigrant students often feel at risk because of the political climate in this country right now.  Our commitment to you is to make sure you get the best education, to provide the support you need to thrive here, and to work with friends and allies in advocacy to do our best to keep pathways for your progress open.  Our Trinity Founders would expect no less of us.

We are in a moment in this nation’s history, as we celebrate the 250^th birthday of the American Experiment, in which the rights and freedoms and achievements of the last century’s quest for simple justice are at grave risk.  This is a moment to reflect on why Trinity was founded, and why we persist in this day and age as a university that still emphasizes women’s education and leadership, why we are proud of our evolution as a center of learning that welcomes so many different races, ethnicities, religions and experiences to this small but mighty campus; why we continue to emphasize the foundation of our mission in Catholic teachings on social justice.

Make no mistake about it:  there’s a great movement underway to roll back the clock on the American experience, to re-set this nation’s culture to a time before equal opportunity for all, a time before civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and justice for all.  The political movement to abolish educational and corporate programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion are thinly veiled efforts to return to times we thought were long gone — times in which many if not most of the people gathered in this room today would not be welcome in the academic, social, cultural and leadership rooms of America.

And for those who think that this country no longer needs DEI programs, you need look no further than the University of Maryland where, last week, the club tennis team used Ku Klux Klan imagery on a flyer about a tennis tournament.  The KKK is the ultimate symbol of the era of white supremacy, racial hatred and violence against African Americans.  The fact that some students at one of the nation’s leading public universities think that a KKK image is funny or in any way appropriate speaks to the urgent need for ongoing education for racial reconciliation and healing in this country.  But, instead, the current political administration has threatened all universities with penalties up to and including stripping tax exempt status if the institutions promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

Trinity WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED by these political threats!

Trinity was founded because women were excluded and demanded inclusion.  Historically, the first several generations were white Catholic women reflecting those times.  In the late 20^th Century, the Sisters of Notre Dame challenged Trinity to open her arms wider and expand her reach for inclusion to a far broader population of women including women who bore the great burdens of racism, economic and social marginalization in the capital of the free world.

Trinity today is proud to be one of the most inclusive universities in the nation, one of just two private institutions designated as both a predominantly Black and Hispanic serving institution.  This is a university devoted to principles of equity and inclusion from our founding moment, and we cannot deny nor will we change those values.  We have expressed those values in our policy known as Trinity DARE – Driving Actions for Racial Equity.  And we will continue to stand for equity, inclusion and justice for our students and all whom we serve.

Our commitment to these values is enshrined in the religious freedom we have as a Catholic college devoted to the Church’s teachings on social justice, the foundation of our mission and of a good society.

Today, our seniors, the Gold Class of 2027, join a long line of Trinity students and graduates who have worn these academic robes with pride and courage.  Your caps and gowns symbolize your full entrance into the community of scholars whose lifelong ambitions are not simply to use your knowledge and talents in service to your own needs and interests, but, truly, to change our world for the better thanks to your passionate commitments to equity and justice for all.  Wear your regalia as sacred vestments in the high church of moral action for the common good, cloaking you in the privilege of an education that the majority of people on this planet will never enjoy.  Your privilege imposes an equal responsibility to use this gift of learning in service to others, to raise your voices when others cannot speak, to blaze trails across unfamiliar terrains, to insist on the truth of the ancient phrase that “…justice will not come until those who are not hurt are just as outraged as those who are.”

As you march from this Chapel today, may you wear your caps and gowns with pride, and go with the power, wisdom and love of the Trinity as your constant companion and source of inspiration through all the days of your lives.

Congratulations, seniors!

Shredding the Moral Fabric of Our Nation

President's Blog: Shredding the Moral Fabric of Our Nation

Archbishop Coakley is right. To livestream an execution is barbaric and contributes to the shredding of the already-fragile moral fabric of this nation. Social justice demands upholding the dignity and worth of all human life.

The current political administration in the United States seems to have an insatiable hunger for spectacles that, too often, involved bloodshed and death.  From the War on Iran that included bombing a school where more than 100  young girls perished, to ICE agents wantonly and with malice shooting and sometimes killing people on the streets of our major cities, to the less-lethal but nonetheless distasteful spectacle of a fistfight on the White House lawn to “celebrate” the nation’s 250th birthday, our leaders appear eager to reinforce their power through cruel, brutal displays of physical harm to others.

Now comes, if possible, an even cruder, more savage idea that more rational people pray will never come to fruition:  a declaration of an intent to livestream for all the world to see the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan.  What kind of leaders think it appropriate to make a show, a form of entertainment, out of the official killing of a human being?  Leaders who have clearly smashed whatever remained of their already-damaged moral compass.

Yes, to be clear, Nidal Hasan committed a terrible, horrific crime.  He is a self-proclaimed terrorist who shot and killed 13 people and injured 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.  He admitted the crime, was convicted by a military jury of all charges, and sentenced to death in 2013.  A lengthy mandatory appeals process ensued until this month when the Pentagon confirmed the death sentence would be carried out by firing squad in December.

While there is no justification for Hasan’s murderous rampage, the issue of the morality of the death penalty continues to be a serious matter of debate and concern.  The Catholic Church has long questioned the death penalty, and in 2018 Pope Francis I specifically amended the Catechism of the Catholic Church to prohibit the death penalty as an offense against human life.   This is the specific passage from the Catechism:

Capital Punishment

2266 The State’s effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. the primary scope of the penalty is to redress the disorder caused by the offense. When his punishment is voluntarily accepted by the offender, it takes on the value of expiation. Moreover, punishment, in addition to preserving public order and the safety of persons, has a medicinal scope: as far as possible it should contribute to the correction of the offender.⁶⁷

2267 Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, [Francis, Address to Participants in the Meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, 11 October 2017] and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.

This section of the Catechism goes on to address other life issues including abortion and euthanasia, both of which are strictly forbidden in Catholic teaching.  By including the death penalty, the Church took an important step toward reinforcing the dignity of all human life.

Pope Leo XIV reinforced this teaching on October 10, the World Day Against the Death Penalty, when he wrote on X (Twitter to us old folk…):

“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption. #NoDeathPenalty”

The impending execution of Nidal Hasan might never have reached headlines, however, but for the pronouncement by Secretary of Defense (or, as he prefers, War) Pete Hegseth that the execution would be “public,” and then the Pentagon announced that “public” means livestreamed for all the world to watch.  That announcement brought an immediate and furious response from many religious, political and public leaders, including Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who issued the following statement sharply condemning the decision of the U.S. government:

“It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War’s decision to publicly livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan. Our God is the God of life. In no way can Hassan’s actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered. The word of God exhorts us: ‘do not repay anyone evil for evil’ (Romans 12:17). The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.

“I pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel that we as a nation may always choose life even in the most trying times and circumstances.”

The backlash to the announcement of the livestream has grown in the last few days, including many major religious organizations and politicians on both sides of the aisle.  Even those who are advocates for the death penalty are drawing the line on the public spectacle.

Another case also fuels the national debate:  the “botched execution” of Christa Pike in Tennessee.  Pike was sentenced to death for murdering her classmate 30 years ago.  But when the execution was underway, despite numerous efforts to inject her with a fatal dose of pentobarbital, she did not die.  She was hospitalized, recovered, and is now back in prison while debate rages about whether her sentence should be commuted or whether she should go through the execution once more.

Archbishop Coakley was right to decry the harm to the moral fabric of our nation that the potential livestream of Hassan’s execution would impose.  More to the point, the existence of the death penalty at all in this day and age is a tear in that fabric that we must mend before the fabric shreds entirely.  Our bloodthirsty culture needs more rationality, fewer spectacles of blood and gore.  We need more voices promoting an end to violence, rather than supporting state-sponsored violence.  No death penalty ever stopped subsequent murders.  Those who would harm others learn nothing from public spectacles, and in fact, may find them weirdly incentivizing to commit mayhem as we know from the tales of many mass shooters who crave fame.

Justice will not come until we find a way to achieve peace in this nation.  Our moral duty is to work for an end to violence in all forms, including official violence.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Claude?

President's Blog: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Claude?

We have created the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence to develop policies and educational programs around the use of AI in teaching, learning and administration at Trinity.

(photo credit)

Recently, while scrolling around the internet as is a habit of mine, I came across some information about Trinity that seemed quite wrong.  Upon further probing, I learned the source of the misinformation:  “Claude did it.”  Claude?  I had no idea who Claude was until that moment when I learned that Claude is the name of the (fill in the blanks:  agent, chatbot, large language model, a.k.a. artificial intelligence) created by the company Anthropic.

(Ok, Claude didn’t really do it on its own, it simply facilitated writing something about Trinity by vacuuming data from the internet and producing a misleading statement; the human element failed to proofread before posting.)

Welcome to the new era of the Technology Revolution!  Artificial intelligence fills the news these days, and inescapably fills our screens — Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Co-Pilot, the original ChatGPT, Claude, Meta’s Muse, you name it, the AI space is already crowded and we’ve only just met these strange new phenomena.

Upon learning that AI is already in use around campus (yes, I know about student use, more on that in a minute) for administrative purposes, I did a quick survey of faculty and staff this summer (AI Survey Summer 26) and was startled to learn this:  a fairly large number of faculty and staff are already using various AI tools for everything from organizing routine tasks to developing course syllabi to writing emails to doing research, and more.  And, yet, our faculty also are deeply concerned about student use of AI tools to write papers or otherwise do what some might call “cheating” but others say is simply helping out with the assignment.  As I delved into the topic, I learned that this is a nationwide struggle not only in higher education but throughout K-12 education as well.

So, how do we solve a problem like Claude?  I absolutely want Trinity — our students, faculty and staff — to be fully conversant with all of the latest developments in technology, especially since many of the professions our students will enter (e.g., healthcare, business, education) already use AI tools.  At the same time, I need to know how Trinity as a learning community with a very special mission makes sure that we keep AI under control and in perspective, not allowing AI to take over our own thinking and writing, research and teaching processes.

As I mused on all of this, Pope Leo XIV issued the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, a brilliant exposition of the Church’s social justice teachings and how those teachings should inform our work with Artificial Intelligence.

As I spoke with faculty and staff colleagues about the challenges we face in the AI age, we agreed that this is a topic that needs a large and ongoing community conversation.  So, we have done several things that are in the early stages of organization, and as we move through the year we will have numerous opportunities to engage on these issues:

1) We have formed a faculty/staff Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (Task Force on AI Organization) with project teams organized around topics including the use of AI in curricula and pedagogy, AI in administrative work, AI in faculty research, recommended AI platforms, and further development of the policy statement on Academic Integrity and AI.  More than 50 faculty and staff have volunteered to serve on this Task Force, a great showing of institutional engagement!  Most important, this group will formulate a statement on Trinity’s philosophy about Artificial Intelligence rooted in Trinity’s mission and values.

2) We will engage students in this discussion first through a survey that Dr. Rachel Poirier is developing with input from the Task Force.  We will share the results with the campus community, and those results will inform our work going forward.

3) I will soon be calling our first Campus Conversations of the year and that will include discussion of AI and the work of our Task Force.

4) At Alumnae Reunion on Friday, October 23, we will have a panel discussion about Magnifica Humanitas with our campus scholars Dr. Jeannine Marino, Dr. Steven Gable, and Dr, Stephen Thorne, and special guest Dr. Stephen Schneck who will also speak about religious liberty in an earlier program.  Students will also be part of these panels, which are also part of our America250 program.

5) We will invite speakers to campus throughout the year to lead professional development programming for faculty and staff on topics related to AI, and we will be happy to include students in such programming as well.

Why should Trinity faculty, staff and students care about any of this?

First and most important, AI is already reshaping all of education — how students learn, how faculty teach, how writing and research are changing with AI tools.  Knowing how to use AI — and knowing how to avoid its dangers — should be central to our work as educators and students.

Second, as a Catholic college, we should heed the Pope’s call to be sure that our embrace of technology does not damage our humanity, and that is not something we can take for granted.  We must always act to reinforce the fundamental principle of social justice to uphold the life and dignity of every human person.

And that leads to my third concern:  if you look at the photo below — all the tech titans gathered at the White House last week — you may notice that there are only two women and no persons of color at that powerful table.  While those powerful men signed a pledge saying that they would regulate themselves in the development of AI, we know from long experience that the world simply cannot work that way.  When women and people of different races, ethnicities, economic strata and life experiences are excluded, the resulting products and processes will not serve all the people well.  We need our Trinity students, alumnae and alumni at those tables as far as possible — and to get there, we must study and learn everything we can about this new technological revolution so that we can join in, participate, influence and guide its development for the good of all people, not just for the powerful few.

I will share much more on this initiative in the days to come, and I welcome your comments and ideas on the best ways for Trinity to learn about, engage with and have community impact on AI in the future.

The President, The Press, and We The People

President's Blog: The President, The Press, and We The People

The most important way we can celebrate America's 250th Birthday is to uphold, defend and use our First Amendment Freedom of Speech and Press. NO U.S. President can ignore his Constitutional Duty to "preserve, protect and defend" these rights that he stewards for us --- We the People!

[UPDATE:  On Monday, September 21, 2026, the three media outlets (CNN, MSNOW, Politico) and their White House correspondents sued President Trump and his aides for violating their First Amendment rights by banning them from the White House.  In solidarity, all major television networks refused to provide pool coverage for White House events on Monday, and news photographers from the New York Times and other newspapers also joined in a photo blackout in solidarity with their colleagues.  I will provide another update as events unfold this week.]

The current President of the United States has had some unusual ideas about how to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the world’s oldest continuing Democracy.  A bloody fight on the White House lawn? Check.  A grand prix car race around the U.S. Capitol? Check! An effort to paint the Reflecting Pool “American Flag Blue”? Well, ok, I guess.  A triumphal arch hiding snipers and munitions?  Really?  Whatever.

Abolishing Freedom of the Press?  Draw the line and hold it right there!  The President reveals his woeful ignorance of American history — and the Constitutional duties of his office — when he now declares that certain news outlets (MSNOW, CNN, Politico) are banned from the White House because he does not like their reporting.  The man who swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” that includes First Amendment Freedom of the Press actually said in an interview, ““There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.”

What??? Honest to goodness, that’s actually what’s right about this country!  Freedom of the Press — and its close sibling, Freedom of Speech — means that reporters and everyday citizens are free to express themselves in whatever way they wish, positive or negative, and our government may not intervene to repress, constrain, punish or stop the speech or reporting.  The First Amendment is really quite simple: reporting and speech in the United States is free, open and not subject to government censorship or restraint.

Above all else, the First Amendment freedoms are what we should be celebrating in this year of America250 because those freedoms of speech and expression gave life to our nation and have supported this experiment in freedom for two and one-half centuries.  First Amendment freedoms are the bedrock of our way of life.  For any president to attempt to put an end to those freedoms is an offense against not only the media outlets, but an offense against all citizens, We the People — WE are the beneficiaries of the careful stewardship of free speech and press.  WE are responsible to sustain those freedoms for future generations.

Presidents since George Washington have complained about negative press coverage; it goes with the territory.  Democrats and Republicans alike have complained, confronted, decried and bashed the news media.  Leadership in a free country means accepting a large dose of criticism, questioning, skepticism, and yes, at times, even unfair or biased reporting that distorts reality.  The solution is not to ban reporters but to provide the facts as clearly and consistently as possible.  Presidents have big bully pulpits, they can answer charges and correct the record as often as they wish.  What they cannot do is trample on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The President’s churlish fit of pique against select news outlets occurred, ironically, one day after Constitution Day on which Trinity faculty and students gathered to consider the very issues now crowding the front pages.  Dean Tom Mostowy gave a great overview of the creation of the Constitution, and then Newsroom Director Chaz Muth and journalists with the Trinity Times discussed the history and current state of press freedom (slide from Mr. Muth’s presentation on the right, and photo by Phil Reese below; see full slide decks from the 9/17 program on the website).

Following the program, several of the student journalists asked me for my thoughts on why press freedom is important — and of course I had to underscore the fundamental importance of a free press to sustaining all of our rights and privileges in a free society.  Then they asked me what I thought about student press, and my answer is the same:  student press and media are extremely important to the life and health of our campus community, and student journalism is vitally necessary to sustain an open, honest university.  I am so proud of the Trinity Times and the work of our student journalists!

I noted that I was a student journalist for the Trinity Times “back in the day” and I learned the ropes of both journalism and the politics that naturally accompany good reporting.  I didn’t mention this story in the interview, but I remembered it later on:  one day when I was a student editor, the Trinity Times published something critical of the student government.  The President of the Student Government stopped me on the hallway to complain bitterly and loudly, about the Trinity Times, “I love you most of the time, but sometimes you piss me off.” [direct quote, sorry for the slang…]  That stung, but we didn’t change our story.  Then, a year later, when I became the Student Government President, the roles were suddenly reversed, and I learned what it felt like to be the object of constant press criticism.  Ugh.  Not fun.  But I learned to accept it as part of leadership.

Later on, as President of the University, I’ve had to deal with all kinds of media and, often, criticism and negativity.  As a leader, I know that coping well with criticism — and, at times, even news stories I think are unfair — is part of my responsibility.  If a reporter really gets facts wrong, I might call the reporter to discuss it, or even write a letter to the editor or op-ed.  That’s how we do it in a free society.

What no leader can do — whether a Student Government President or University President or President of the United States — no leader can demand that the press stop doing their job, that only positive stories may be published, that journalists are banned from the premises for doing their job —- which is a job they do so that We, the People, can stay informed.

A President cannot be a “snowflake” melting into a puddle of tears and complaints when the news is negative.  The strength of a leader is most obvious in the hard times, the trying moments, the times when learning from criticism and moving on reveals the qualities of the leader.

Most of all, a President of the United states must uphold and cherish the Constitution and Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment.  In the current case involving CNN, MSNOW and Politico, lawsuits will surely come and courts will most likely rule against the President’s actions.  But frankly, it should never get that far.  He should rescind his ban on the reporters and grow up, take the criticism and move on. THAT would be truly presidential.

More Recent Blog posts from President McGuire.