Residents of Northfield, Massachusetts aren’t so sure they want the college founded by Jerry Falwell for a neighbor. Liberty University would like to open a satellite campus on the 217 acre campus of what was once a prep school, but at least some prospective neighbors don’t like what Liberty stands for.
G. Jeffrey McDonald has the story for The Boston Globe:
“What makes [Liberty] a really bad fit is the matter of bigotry against certain groups, [namely] gays and lesbians,’’ said Northfield resident Nancy Champoux, a retired teacher who attended the meeting. “Unless we’re all involved [in finding a good fit], it’s really unlikely this is going to work out well for anyone.’’
Liberty emerged last month as a leading contender to receive – free of charge – the campus that the Northfield Mount Hermon School sold for $100,000 in 2009 to the billionaire Green family of Oklahoma City. ….
Sunday’s meeting came on the heels of other efforts to make sure Liberty is not chosen. Last week, more than 1,000 Mount Hermon alumni petitioned the school’s board of trustees to protest the prospect of Liberty getting the campus.
In their petition, Mount Hermon alumni described Liberty as “an extremist, homophobic, and intellectually narrow institution’’ that would not honor the legacy of evangelist D.L. Moody, who built the campus as a school for girls in 1879.