Posted on 03/05/2005 4:33:16 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
Adjunct professor Thomas Klocek of the School of New Learning staged a press conference Tuesday, March 1 to protest his suspension from his teaching position.
The suspension stemmed from an incident last academic quarter involving two cultural student groups. According to those present, Klocek was involved in heated arguments in which school officials later said was "threatening and disrespectful to students."
In a formal letter to the board of trustees sent out by his attorney, Klocek listed several demands from DePaul: “A public apology by the President to be published in the DePaulia stating that DePaul violated its own policies in suspending Professor Klocek without written charges, a hearing and the right to confront witnesses against him and without and emercency."
The statement went on:
“Financial compensation for defamation, loss of income, destruction of professional reputation, violations of his contractual right to academic freedom and other wrongs.”
In September 2004, Klocek approached members of the student groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and United Muslims Moving Ahead (UMMA) at the Loop Campus student involvement fair.
Students present said their discussion soon escalated into a public display that attracted the attention of many surrounding groups.
Those involved in the confrontation reported that Klocek was “very aggressive and angry,” and claimed he made comments like “there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. You are all fanatics,” as well as making “derogatory comments regarding the validity of the Palestinian nation.”
DePaul initially responded by working with students present to get official statements regarding the incident. Suzanne Dumbleton, dean of the School of New Learning, met with students on Sept. 23 to discuss the incident. Dumbleton then proceeded to take action on the matter.
In response to Klocek’s demands, DePaul issued an official statement Tuesday.
The press release stated: “This instructor is hired on an as-needed basis to teach college writing. He does not have a contract with the university and does not enjoy the rights of tenure ... He had an opportunity to file a grievance if he believed he was treated unfairly, but to date has not exercised it. The university paid him for the full quarter for which he had originally been hired.”
The university statement continued by saying “This case is not one of academic freedom, but rather one of inappropriate behavior outside the classroom by a university professional.”
In his letter to the board of trustees, Klocek’s lawyer said, “We would appreciate a substantive response from the administration by March 8 to avoid litigation.”
Klocek has been an adjunct professor at DePaul, according to my original post (below) for 14 years.
Suspended DePaul professor gagged and bound at news conference (Prof challenged Muslims' views)
Must not have been "Indian" enough.
And if he had made similar statements about Israel, he would have been cheered and given a promotion.
What a silly drama queen. He had a temporary contract with the university and when they decided not to hire him for a another quarter because of this incident, he gets a temper tantrum and tapes himself to a chair.
That moron in Colorado can call the 9/11 victims "Nazis"
and praise the terrorists - no problem!. But say anything
critical of the Mooselims and you're screwed. This country
has gone nuts. PC is killing us.
Some schools are pretty stingy with tenure, and acc. to my orginal post on March 1 about Klocek, he'd been a temporary professor for 14 years.
Without the stunt, the suspended professor would've gotten NO attention.
Master's degree holder Ward Churchill may soon be able to take this job. He know's the difference in speech outside the CU classroom and he knows native American art and was trained by the Army to show movies and slides.
DePaul's School of New (sic) Learning is a liberal cauldron
at a Catholic university that seems to have no problem allowing the swinish "Vagina Monologues" to be performed. Since the 1960s the Vincentians who operate DePaul have drifted off into the lala land of political correctness.
Must not have CLAIMED to be enough Indian.
Hence the quotation marks.
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