Marquette University's president is standing up for the school's decision to renege dean candidate Jodi O'Brien's job offer, saying it has nothing to do with her sexual orientation.
According to DFWCatholic.org, the college's president, Father Robert Wild, spoke openly about the situation at a dinner last week:
"I want to say it strongly, clearly and directly," the reason for rescinding the position was "not about sexual identity," Fr. Wild said.
"We have a variety of men and women here who are homosexual who work in all sorts of venues in this university, holding a variety of positions," he noted. "They do great work, they make a valuable contribution to this institution."
Marquette's ruling on the matter "is certainly not about sending a negative message to these men and women," Fr. Wild said.
Wild also said that the incident was indicative of the "work we need to do to get us to an even greater level of inclusion and support as a community so that decisions like this one as difficult as they are do not so quickly polarize us."
O'Brien, who currently teaches at Seattle University, said in an e-mail to the AP that she is "very disappointed" by the college's action.