AP: Academic Freedom: Professors under fire

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 2/11/05 | AP

[NormsRevenge]

A look at recent cases of professors being disciplined, criticized or let go for unpopular statements:

-The University of Illinois fired biology professor Leo F. Koch in 1960 for a letter to the editor of the campus newspaper that read: "A mutually satisfactory sexual experience would eliminate the need for many hours of frustrating petting and lead to much happier and longer lasting marriages among our younger men and women."

-Leonard Jeffries Jr. lost the chairmanship of African-American studies at the City College of New York in 1992 after saying in a speech that "Russian Jewry had a particular control over the movies, and their financial partners, the Mafia, put together a system for the destruction of black people." He sued but lost.

-The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, recently accused economics professor Hans Hoppe of "mischaracterizing opinion as objective fact" by saying in a lecture that gays save less money than heterosexuals. Hoppe has threatened to sue.

-A faculty panel is looking into allegations that three Columbia University professors mocked Jewish students and that the department of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures favors Palestinian sympathizers. The professors say the allegations are the result of misunderstandings or fabrications.

-University of Colorado environmental studies professor Adrienne Anderson says her contract was not renewed because of her critiques of corporate environmental policies. Anderson said she plans to appeal.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Freedom of speech doesn't imply freedom from consequences.

[Eva]

I think this is only a few of the many cases of universities being embarassed into taking action against radical professors. The only case that I think was wrong was the Nevada econ professor who stated that Gays save less money than heterosexuals (as long as he had the stats to back it up, that is.)

[ken21]

jeffries was an anti-semite.

no one had problems with his ouster.

[FormerACLUmember]

AP whining pretending to be "news."

[NormsRevenge]

agreed, It's a 'filler' piece.

[lilylangtree]

About time these liberal leftists communists that have infilterated our institutions of higher learning with unfiltered, ready access to the young minds be held accountable.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Whenever some commie professor does something over the top and catches hell from the public, the media is right there to cry that his rights are being violated. Wrong. The 1st Amendment does not imply that a person has immunity from consequences. And isn't it funny how the "he's just exercising his 1st Amendment rights" crowd goes dead silent when a guy gets black-balled in his job for being in the military or a member of the Republican party?

[tcostell]

University of Colorado environmental studies professor Adrienne Anderson says her contract was not renewed because of her critiques of corporate environmental policies. Anderson said she plans to appeal.

Now seriously, what are the odds that an academic is going to be punished for holding views that are "Too Liberal"?

It's far more likely that they would punish the person who called the views "too liberal".

[Mark was here]

Academic Freedom? What a pant load.

Freedom of the press applies to the Publisher. The editor and the writers are employees of the publisher, unless of course they are all the same person.

The University is the Publisher and the Professor is the employee.

The University is Wal-Mart and the professor is the greeter.

The Greeter at Wal-Mart would get canned if his greeting to customers was "They are having a better sale at K-Mart"

There is no such thing as Academic freedom. It is a make believe right like the right to mass transit or an abortion.

This is nothing but an Employer / Employee relationship here. If a professor wants Academic Freedom, he is free to start his own school.

[delacoert]

AP whining pretending to be "news."

Exactly.

The University of Illinois fired biology professor Leo F. Koch in 1960

1960? Like this is news.

[em2vn]

Not a word can be added to what you say.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

A mutually satisfactory sexual experience would eliminate the need for many hours of frustrating petting ....

Some of the happiest experiences of my life involved heavy petting that went nowhere. There is nothing like surfeit to dull the edge of pleasure.

[okie01]

Now seriously, what are the odds that an academic is going to be punished for holding views that are "Too Liberal"?

Evidently, Adrienne Anderson must have rubbed her fellow faculty raw.

She only taught the one course -- "Racism, Class and Pollution Politics". Her department head (Enviromental Sciences) seemed to take some pleasure in announcing that her course had been stricken from the course catalog -- because all it amounted to was "activism".

Can't say I see a particular need for the course, either...

[ApplegateRanch]

He DIDN'T say Gays save less money than heterosexuals.

He said that gays, heterosexual couple without children, and several other DEMOGRAPHICS are groups that TYPICALLY are less likely to save rather than spend; in contrast with couple with young children and certain other demographics he named.