Philosophy Professor Sherman Stanage publicly stated Wednesday that he is “very concerned” about a university vice president’s opinion of racism at NIU.

Stanage, academic adviser to CHANCE counselor Martha Palmer, said he disagreed with statements made by Tom Montiegel, vice president of development and university relations, which were part of a Dec. 2 official university press release distributed throughout Northern Illinois.

The release states that Montiegel believes most of NIU’s problems with racism stem from the fact that the majority of the university’s students originate from “Chicago and its suburbs, which taken together, form one of the most racially segregated large metropolitan areas in the nation.”

In the press release, Montiegel also was quoted as saying charges made by Palmer that the non-renewal of her contract was a “racist firing” were “ridiculous” because Palmer, who is black, was fired by two black men.

Upset by Montiegel’s comments, Stanage responded with a six-page press release of his own. Stanage said he plans to send his release to Rockford, Chicago and the Associated Press.

Stanage said Wednesday that he states in the release he believed it was wrong for Montiegel to make Chicago the “scapegoat” for NIU’s racism. “(The Chicago area) is our service territory and the university should have ways to deal with” the fact that most students from Chicago never have interacted with other races, he said.

“Montiegel makes NIU out to be a rehabilitation program in higher education which is forced to reform the bad habits of students dumped on its poor, innocent campus by Chicago and its suburbs,” Stanage states in his release.

He also said that Montiegel is wrong for believing Palmer was not fired for racist reasons because she was fired by two blacks. He said that although “99 out of 100 times” a black will not fire a black for racist reasons, such instances do occur.

Stanage states in his release, “There is no question in my mind but that the administration must quickly retract this official statement and offer a public apology.

“I don’t think most of (NIU’s) administration feels (like Montiegel), but this is an official NIU spokesman—which is the point I’m most concerned about,” he said.

Montiegel said Wednesday he had read Stanage’s release but that “it will take a while to understand how he arrived at his conclusions.” He said that Stanage’s statements were “confusing” and not supportive of any facts Montiegel had stated.