An email detailing President Bennet’s recent political campaign contributions has been raising a few eyebrows at this typically liberal institution as it circulates to the student body. 

The email, which provides links to a website listing all political donations above $250 for a particular zip code, shows that while President Bennet donated $250 to Bill Bradley’s campaign for the presidency in Jan. of 1999, he donated $1000 to George W. Bush’s campaign the following June.

In a statement released Thursday, President Bennet said that he felt records on political contributions should made available to the public.

"I believe campaign contributions should be disclosed," Bennet said. "And the fact that the web facilitates knowing who’s sending money to whom makes disclosure all the more
meaningful."

However, Bennet also said in the statement that while contributions should be made public, he felt the reasons behind them should not be disclosed.

"At the same time, the motivation for particular contributions seems to require some privacy. The motivations are usually complex... and they change over time as campaigns progress."

Some students expressed dismay that the president of a University with as liberal a reputation as Wesleyan’s would donate money to a conservative candidate.

"[Bush] isn’t the choice I would make and I think a majority of the students would not support him either," said Wesleyan Democrats Co-Chair Jen Tomasello ’00. "I think his ideology strays from that of most of the Wesleyan community, but President Bennet has the right to contribute to whom he wants... even if [students] disagree."

"Although I think he should be able to support whomever he wants regardless of the student body’s political bend, if he was going to go Republican, why didn’t he support [Senator John] McCain?" said John Milioti ’02, who voted for McCain in the March primary.

Some students, however, may be unaware of Bennet’s long political history.

In 1974, he challenged current United States Senator Chris Dodd for the Democratic Nomination in Connecticut’s second district but lost. From 1977 to 1979, he served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations as well as the first Staff Director of the Senate Budget Committee under an appointment from President Jimmy Carter.

Then in 1979, Bennet was appointed as the Head of the Agency for International Development, a large organization which works on issues in third world countries. He held this position until Carter left office in 1981.

In 1993, President Clinton appointed Bennet as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizational Affairs, a position he left in 1995 for his presidency at  Wesleyan. On Wednesday, Bennet spoke in Washington at a conference sponsored by the United Nations (UN) Information Center and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Although Bennet has had a long tenure under two Democrat Presidents, he said that his most recent appointment especially contributed to his Republican campaign donation. 

"I left the Clinton administration in 1995 with profound disagreements over the part of the administration that has to do with foreign policy," Bennet said. "I probably would not have
been as eager to accept the position at Wesleyan had I been happy with the way things were being run."

Bennet said that he has purposefully avoided contributing to local political races because of the position it might place Wesleyan in if the candidate he did not support is elected.
Nevertheless, Bennet said he feels for the most part that his past political involvement can be of help to the University.

"I take my own engagement in public policy very seriously," Bennet said. "And I hope it creates contacts for Wesleyan... It was influential in getting Madeline Albright here last spring, and I hope it will be again."

Bennet said, however, that while the response from the student body does not worry him, he is uncertain about whether the public availability to donation records will affect how he
contributes in the future.

"If they create a bias, then that’s not right," Bennet said. "It’s important to understand the external perceptions of the Wesleyan issue. Right now I’m undecided, so I’ll have to wait and see."