As the person chiefly responsible for DePaul's finances Scarborough was responsible for bringing Barnes and Noble to the loop campus, forcing local coffee shop Gi-Gi's to close. He was the person who held the keys to DePaul's contracts and kept the deals in the dark, away from the students, faculty, staff, and external workers whom they affected. We approached him several times about Starbucks' illegal union-busting tactics, and Coca-Cola's murdering of union organizers in Colombia, he never lifted a finger to help us. Vincentian values indeed.
One shouldn't be surprised, Scarborough has a history of reactionary politics. Despite all of DePaul's claims about being Urban, it recruited Scarborough not from Chicago, but from Texas. According to the Daily Texan, Scarborough was actually the President of the University of Texas Austin Student Government while he was a student in the 1980's. During his tenure, a number of students proposed a gay rights bill, which would simply require the school to not discriminate against queer students. Scarborough opposed this resolution, telling the school's newspaper that since Gays were more likely to have fecal matter under their fingernails, which could spread STD's like AIDS, that preventing them from accessing certain public spaces would be legit.
Granted AIDS education has come along way since the 1980's, but even then it was known that AIDS transmission isn't that easy, and besides, there are plenty of straight people with AIDS, or who don't know how to wipe their butt properly and end up with fecal matter under their fingernails. Did Scarborugh still have these ideas at DePaul? How did DePaul's Queer community feel about this? I left copies of the relevant newspaper articles with leaders of DePaul's queer community. As far as I know they never followed up on the issue. I'm not sure why.
When the bill came to a vote in the Texas student government, Scarborough actually led a walk-out of conservative members to attempt to prevent quorum. They failed and the bill passed.
Then there are the rumors. You would think that someone so anti-gay would believe in family values and not want to do anything that would upset his white picket fence nuclear family fantasy. A number of reliable sources have told me that despite being married, Scarborough had an affair with a woman who worked in DePaul's General Counsel office. Lots of people have extra-marital affairs though, and it's not something I'm willing to condemn as I believe marriage is an outdated institution, but Scarborough got this woman pregnant according to my sources. Paid her off to keep quiet, and DePaul's administration turned a blind eye. Nothing quite like Christian hypocrisy on family values, right Mark Foley?
Now granted Scarborugh was hired under Fr. Minogue, and Minogue, besides being a Gynecologist, well there are rumors about him and maids as well. It seems as though Holtschneider is still cleaning house from Minogue's era. I wonder what will happen to those poor tigers.
So now the question is who will take Scarborough's place? Maybe it will be an arch-Finkelstein who will block any attempts to boycott the apartheid state of Israel. Maybe it will be a friendly liberal face who talks and talks, but when push comes to shove supports the corporations against the people. One way or the other, we should demand that all administration positions are appointed by a democratic vote among students, faculty and staff.
Of course, anyone willing to clarify these assertions, (Scott?) is welcome to visit www.depaulasu.net and e-mail asudepaul@yahoo.com
