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In response to Kyle Michaud’s article about the University of Maine College Republicans engaging in questionable conduct, there are several things that the readers should know about Kyle Michaud.
First, Kyle Michaud was ejected from his executive position as UMaine College Republican Secretary. The reasoning was that his conduct within the group meetings became disagreeable. He engaged members in off-color debates outside of the meeting itinerary numerous times. Many of our group members felt targeted by his remarks, including one member who left in the middle of the meeting because of his flagrant disregard for group conduct.
Secondly, Kyle Michaud was not present for the discussion about CPAC funding, nor was he present for the General Student Senate meeting. We had slated our budget at $7,000 because we were so advised by a member of the student senate. This figure was realistic for the full funding of 25 members. This begs the question “Would we really jeopardize funding for our entire group to go to a much anticipated political event?” This simply doesn’t make sense.
During the College Republican meeting following the allotment of less than $2,000 from GSS, Kyle Michaud had mentioned that this was good news, because we could start a court case against the University of Maine General Student Senate due to bias. He wanted to obtain the minutes from the meeting as a basis for the ridiculous idea of a court case against GSS. Our group saw this as a rash decision that we would never support. We fully cooperated with GSS and look forward to doing so in the future.
When Kyle Michaud was asked to vacate his position on the executive board, he was in the middle of a project attempting to document professorial salaries and other expenditures by the university. He was eventually going to release this information at the cost of sullying the university’s image. It is ironic that all of a sudden he is interested in “protecting the university” after working on such projects.
Regarding the “Grossweiler controversy,” as Michaud calls it, this was an attempt on the part of our group to bring to light the stark contrast between liberal professors and conservative students on our campus. McDade took this case outside of the UMaine College Republicans to a non-governmental organization, The Leadership Institute. This and any action that McDade was engaged in occurred outside the auspices of the UMaine College Republicans.
Therefore, Michaud’s anachronistic claim of McDade being a “McCarthyist” is ill-founded. She withdrew from “The Today Show” primarily because of fear of reprisals from professors who did not share her zeal for academic freedom and fairness within the classroom.
As for me “thwarting” $10,000 from the university coffers, that’s purely a part of Michaud’s creative imagination. This was carried out after a press release regarding McDade’s experience with Grossweiler and the CPAC monies was released statewide. Numerous conservative donors were quite upset over this news and their choice – if they did so – to withdraw funding was purely their own, not due to any pressure by the UMaine College Republicans. Our group had no direct contact with any university donors whatsoever.
I believe that the student body should be made aware of such attempts by a former secretary with a damaged ego to besmirch the good name and reputation of the UMaine College Republicans. It should also be noted that when Kyle Michaud was asked to vacate his position on the executive board, he declined his appeal to be reinstated and instead chose to leave the group and attempt petty tactics to harm the group’s image.
Alison Geagan, Rebekah McDade and Luke deNatale contributed to this response.
