NAS Blog

It’s nice to be able to end the week on an upbeat note: the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign announced yesterdy that it has reinstated adjunct reilgious studies professor Kenneth Howell (read about it here in CHE). Howell had regularly taught a course in Catholic moral theology at U of I at U of I since 2001. He was summarily dismissed, however, following a complaint from a student – not actually enrolled in the course – who took issue with Howell’s presentation of Catholic teaching on homosexuality. (see Peter Wood’s account here). This was truly bizarre: without so much as interviewing professor Howell or any of the students actually taking the course, university officials removed him within days of receiving the complainant’s second-hand version of Howell’s conclusions, on the pretext that he had violated the school’s principle of “inclusivity.” I still don’t know what that is, but it sure can get you into a lot of trouble.

Anyway, following a public uproar and much well-deserved embarassment, U of I has rescinded his termination and offered him his customary teaching assignment for the Fall semester. The single change will be his direct employment and compensation by the University, rather than through the campus Catholic center, by which he was previously paid.

All’s well that ends well, as they say. The whole episode, though, should never have transpired to begin with. That it did tells you what truly bad shape academic freedom is in these days.

In today’s Pope Center piece, Richard Bishirjian, president and founder of Yorktown University, writes about the Obama administration’s moves that have a strong negative impact on for-profit higher education.

The president wants people to think that he is not anti-business, but in the realm of higher education at least, it’s hard to resist that conclusion.

Check out this article by Daphne Patai over at Minding the Campus, in which she discusses the perilous state of free speech on American college campuses. There’s been no end of dismal news on that account this week, so it’s good to pass along these thoughts of someone who’s been fighting the good fight on behalf of free expression for quite a while, and really knows the ropes. If it’s getting hard to discuss controversial issues openly at your school because of the administration’s reflexive “sensitivity” to selected ideological constituencies, Patai demonstrates that you don’t have to sit back and let it happen. If you’re familiar with her two important books, Professing Feminism and Heterophobia you’ll know that she’s walked the walk, as she does again here.

Yesterday, good news, since we were elated to acknowledge FIRE’s victory for academic freedom at a California community college. Today, back to the more familiar bad news, since a federal judge has upheld the right of Eastern Michigan University to expel Julea Ward, an evangelical Christian student who was training as a high school guidance counselor. Ward, as we’ve reported previously, was just shy of graduating from EMU’s counseling program when she was mugged by PC ideology. Because of her religious convictions, she could not agree to counsel prospective homosexual clients in the affirmative manner required by EMU’s program. Should such a case arise, she said, she’d simply refer gay clients to other counselors able to accomodate their needs. Oh no, said EMU, that’s not good enough, not by a mile. Sign this paper, or out you go. I can’t, she insisted; you’ re gone, they replied. Supported by the Alliance Defense Fund (read the ADF’s press release here and an Inside Higher Education article here), she sued the school, contending that her First Amendment rights had been violated. Ordinarily, you’d expect First Amendment claims to weigh especially heavily in a case such as this, but the judge, alas, bought the university’s argument about needing latitude in designing its curricula and programs, and the courts have always deferred in such instances, etc., etc. This isn’t about thought control, insisted the counseling program’s directors, it’s simply a matter of recognizing the need to deal with a wide variety of clients, including those with beliefs different from one’s own. Who could disagree? Maybe I’m cynical, but I somehow don’t think a gay atheist will be required to declare that he’s willing to counsel Southern Baptists in a manner that affirms their beliefs. ADF is appealing the case, and we wish them well. Increasingly though, it seems that the acceptable parameters for discussing homosexuality on campus these days are narrowly one-dimensional. And if you don’t see the issue that way and you’re a faculty member without tenure, or if you’re a student and want your degree in counseling or social work, better keep quiet or go elsewhere.

In this week’s Pope Center Clarion Call, Emory University history professor Patrick Allitt discusses the research finding that college students are putting in less and less time on their coursework, yet expect (and mostly get) high grades.

I’m particularly glad to have Professor Allitt comment on this because his 2004 book I’m the Teacher, You’re the Student was such an eye-opener, detailing his difficulties in getting students — at a pretty strong university — to take the work seriously. You can read my review of his book here.

California taxpayers are now on the hook for  $100,000, which the San José/Evergreen Community College District (SJCCD) has agreed to pay an adjunct professor in lost earnings in exchange for dismissal of her First Amendment lawsuit.

The background of the lawsuit? Sheldon had led a short discussion about the nature/nurture debate regarding sexual orientation in her Human Heredity course. She was then fired due to a student complaint and went to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for assistance.

“This welcome settlement demonstrates that colleges cannot get away with punishing a professor for teaching relevant class material, even if a student finds it offensive,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff.

An aspect of this case worthy of the attention of NAS afficionados is the SJCCD’s contention that Sheldon was teaching non-scientific material as science.

In any event, congratulations to Sheldon and FIRE for persevering in this good fight. And condolences to CA taxpayers.

Philosophy professor James Otteson weighs in with some thoughtful comments here.

Our friends at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education continue their stellar work defending the academic freedom and First Amendment rights of college faculty members – especially untenured adjuncts – who collide with stifiling campus political orthodoxies. This time, they’ve scored against the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District, which will have to pay 100K in lost wages to an adjunct instructor who was terminated in 2007 after a student complained that her brief classroom discussion of the origins of homosexuality was “offensive.” The district will have to pick up the tab for legal expenses as well. Too bad for them – and the taxpayers who will carry theses costs – that they didn’t simply respect the instructor’s academic freedom in the first place.

But while I’m glad that FIRE was able to intervene successfully in this case, I also wish that they and other organizations such as the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) didn’t have so much work to do. This is getting to be a depressingly familiar scenario: 1) Instructor in a psychology or ethics course examines homosexuality or sex differences, says something that a student finds “offensive.” 2) A complaint is forwarded at the speed of light to the administration, cc to the campus women’s center, the dean of multicultural affairs or the LGBT office, who don’t necessarily need to interview the instructor, but nevertheless agree that yes, yes, the classroom discussion was indeed “offensive.” 3) The administration informs instructor that she’s outta here. 4) Board of directors upholds administration, unimpressed by quaint ideas about academic freedom or First Amendment protections.

Honestly, I wonder what the worst aspect of cases such as this one is. It’s appalling, of course, that such an Orwellian intellectual climate exists on so many campuses, and the examples of outrages such as this one seem to pop up weekly. See Ashley Thorne’s recent post detailing the latest incident involving a socal work student whose religious convictions ran afoul of a counseling program at Augusta State University in Georgia. But what about boards of trustees, such as the one in the San Jose/Evergreen case? What could they, as the governing bodies at a public institution have been thinking? Apart from the deserved embarassment their school has incurred and the hefty settlement costs they’ve handed to taxpayers, what does academic freedom or First Amendment protections mean to them? Not much, I have to conclude, since they upheld the administration’s outrage, without apparently seeing it as such. Kudos to FIRE once again, which seems to have a much firmer grasp of the academic enterprise and its mission than do many of the people to whom it’s been directly entrusted.

You decide.

Back when Bravo provided high culture, I was entranced by a South Bank Show episode on a Caribbean poet named Derek Walcott.  When I saw Walcott would read at Stanford, I raced to hear him in person, only to be appalled by the meager audience which clapped and immediately dispersed.  Alone with him, I nervously asked how his book Omeros was coming.  Surprised someone knew of it, he said there were publication delays but it would be out soon.  Shortly after, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

A few years later, friends and fortune combined to bring Derek for a reading.  That afternoon, he said he had always wanted to see a redwood tree, so we hopped into my Ford Focus and headed for Palo Colorado Canyon, but stopped just south of Carmel so he could survey the light, the surf, and the hills along the coast.  Walcott also paints, and looking through his framing hands, he slowly rotated and said, “Everywhere you look is a painting.”

Derek’s sold-out reading was magical, including Tiepolo’s Hound, “A Letter from Brooklyn” and his Odyssey section on the Cyclops, a metaphor for all totalitarian dictators who have no depth of vision.

Next day, Derek became impatient as his companion Sigrid embraced everyone, kissing, hugging, saying goodbye.  He turned to me and said, “Let’s show them how men say goodbye.”  He looked me straight in the eye, firmly squeezed my hand, and said, “Goodbye.”

I felt like a child in his presence, this aging yet vital man, numinous, strong despite infirmities and occasional vertigo.  His masculinity was overwhelming.

Now his latest, and perhaps last, book has arrived, White Egrets.  His lines move like waves and trade winds, elegiac, abundant with his island, the sea, sunlight, fields, lost friends, memory, art, and the enchantments of erotic women.  You can own this treasure here.