Letter: Jeanne Ives wrong for College of DuPage

Letter to the Daily Herald editor

I am deeply disappointed to see that former governor candidate Jeanne Ives is on the committee to select the next president of the College of DuPage.

Ives has a record of transphobic, homophobic and other intolerant comments. Someone with her history of intolerance should not play a role in selecting the president of the largest community college in the state, an institution which values the diversity of its student body and our community.

Last year she released a campaign ad filled with stereotypes of transgendered individuals, immigrants, and others. Even the state Republican Party asked her to take it down. The ad can still be found on YouTube.

The ad was not a miscalculation. It was deliberate. She defended its representation of different peoples. In a news conference she said "The transgender man, that's exactly what, typically, a transgender man looks like."

Ives has a history of such inflammatory comments. She has a distinct lack of respect when it comes the LGBTQ+ community. In 2013 Ives said of the gay community: "They are trying to weasel their way into acceptability so they can then start to push their agenda down into the schools because this give them some sort of legitimacy."

It would seem that Ives is the one who has weaseled her way into a position where she can push her agenda on one of the largest public education institutions in the nation.

Ives is manifestly unfit to serve on the Presidential Search Committee, and I hope the College of DuPage board of trustees will reconsider her place on it. Her presence signals to the college's LGBTQ+ and immigrant students that the college is not interested in hiring a new president who will be welcoming of the diversity of the student body.

Daniel McCallum

Wheaton