In 1936, a bequest from the estates of Maud Walker-Ames and Edwin Gardner Ames established a fund that the university uses to "bring to campus many of the most outstanding scholars in the academic profession".  In 1961, a gift from a movie theater owner, John Danz, established another fund in order to bring "distinguished scholars who have concerned themselves with the impact of science and philosophy on man's perception of a rational universe" to the campus.

Together these two funds are paying for ten lectures during the current school year.  Two of the lectures are by scientists, Hubble space telescope senior astrophysicist Mario Livio and Harvard physics professor Lisa Randall.  Both appear to be real scholars who meet the terms of the bequest and the terms of the gift.

The other eight lecturers are all politically correct leftists.  And although some of them may be real scholars, others, all too obviously, are not.  For example, writer Ana Castillo may be entertaining, but she does not even claim to have done scholarly work.  (Her lecture is titled "How I Became a Genre Jumper", which may be interesting, but does not sound scholarly.)  Similarly, Urvashi Vaid is director of the Arcus Foundation and an activist, not a scholar.  (Her lecture is titled "The Enemies of Love and the Future of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Politics", which again sounds interesting, but not scholarly.)

And then there is Angela Davis, the former Black Panther and former communist, who has produced no significant scholarly work but now holds the Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  She does have some achievements, though.  For example, she almost certainly provided the weapons used in a murderous escape.

During the summer of 1970, Davis had become involved in Black Panther efforts to garner support for the imprisoned George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette, known as the "Soledad Brothers" (after the Soledad prison were they were incarcerated).  On August 7, George's brother, 17-year-old Jonathon Jackson, along with two others, disrupted the trial proceedings in an attempt to assist the escape of friend James McClain.  McClain was on trial for an alleged attempt to stab an officer.  In the courthouse the three stood up from their seats, directed everyone to freeze at gunpoint, and led the judge, prosecuting lawyer, and several jurors into a van parked outside.  As the hostages entered the van Jackson and the others were reported to have shouted, "We want the Soledad Brothers freed by 12:30 today!".  During the escape attempt, Jackson and accomplice William Christmas were killed in a shootout with the police.  Judge Harold Haley was killed by his captors with a shotgun taped to his throat inside the van.  Prosecutor Gary Thomas was paralyzed by a police bullet during the incident.

A shotgun used by the escapees was registered in Davis's name, and she was soon wanted by the FBI for conspiracy, kidnapping, and homicide.  The guns used in the kidnapping were traced to Davis, implicating her in the escape attempt.  A California warrant was issued for Davis' arrest in which she was charged as an accomplice to murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy.

Since that is her most significant accomplishment, we have to ask whether that is why she is being invited to speak at the University of Washington.  Or perhaps she is being invited because of her long record of support for communist tyrants.  (Some who suffered under communist rule are not fond of her; she drew a famous rebuke from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.)  She did finally leave the Communist party, but still, apparently, likes some communist leaders, including the brutal Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro.

But she is no scholar, in spite of her titles, and every serious person knows that.

Most likely, it is not possible to force the University of Washington to adhere to the terms of the Walker-Ames bequest and the terms of the Danz gift.  But those who are considering similar bequests or gifts may want to reconsider, or at the very least, attach not just strings, but steel cables, to their gift, so it can be pulled back if the university abuses it.

Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.