Posted on 05/04/2005 9:17:20 AM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Questions of academic freedom are simmering at Southern Illinois University after history professors criticized a colleague over his use of an article about black-on-white killings in San Francisco in the 1970s.
History professor Jonathan Bean, a self-proclaimed "libertarian conservative," claims he is the victim of public attacks by a history department filled with professors who hold political views opposite his.
His colleagues say they fault him for distributing to students what they call a "distorted and inaccurate" historical account of the so-called "Zebra" killings, a series of random street slayings of whites that terrorized San Francisco in the early 1970s.
Bean said he assigned the article in early April as optional reading material to 270 students in his 20th century American history class. He said he downloaded the 2001 article from the conservative online publication frontpagemagazine.com.
"It was simply to give them a chance to learn about something they may have never heard about," Bean said Tuesday.
Bean said the article is one of the only short summaries of a 1979 book on the killings and is a "generally credible account" of the slayings.
He canceled the assignment a few days later, though, after history department chairwoman Marjorie Morgan told him the article was inflammatory and insensitive, Bean said.
"I feel, given the constant emphasis on sensitivity and diversity ... I've been stuck in the cross-hairs of the culture wars," Bean said Tuesday.
Morgan declined to comment Tuesday to The Associated Press.
The week after Bean canceled the assignment, eight history professors took out an ad in the school paper, the Daily Egyptian, expressing their "disgust" at Bean's distribution of the article.
The April 11 ad, which did not name Bean, said the article "quotes questionable sources," "uses unsubstantiated statistics" and "repeats inflammatory rumors."
The article said 71 people were killed in the violence, a figure that has been a subject of debate.
The letter said history teachers must "clearly distinguish between documents that illustrate racism in the American past and present-day racist propaganda."
Since then, some professors say they have received nasty e-mails from free-speech advocates and have been the subject of critical newspaper columns. One, written by columnist Cathy Young and published in the Boston Globe Monday, says Bean has been the victim of "a witch hunt that would do the late Joe McCarthy proud."
Rachel Stocking, one of the professors whose name was included on the ad, said she is startled by the backlash.
"What we did was to exercise our free speech by basically criticizing his teaching methods," she said. "It's significant that people who spoke against racism on a college campus have been subjected to this kind of attack."
Bean said he has received a letter from the dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Shirley Clay Scott, saying she considers the matter closed and that he faces no disciplinary action.
Scott did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday from the AP.
The university is trying to ease tensions within the community by talking to everyone involved, said John M. Dunn, SIU's provost and vice chancellor.
"We are trying to work with the department, including Professor Bean, making sure all the voices are being heard and there is an opportunity of understanding," Dunn said. "There are people with many different voices, we always try to be respectful of that."
Academic Witch-Hunt (This time, it's a "racist" professor at Southern Illinois University)">
Ping
What we did was to exercise our free speech by basically criticizing his teaching methods," she said. "It's significant that people who spoke against racism on a college campus have been subjected to this kind of attack."
Article in question:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3693
Right out of the Paul Simon School of Politics.
Consider the difference between this case and the one at UNLV with I believe Hoppe. You should never show weakness to these PC morons. You probably should not apologize even if you feel you made a slight mistake. And you most certainly should go on the offensive.
It is nothing of the sort at all. In fact, it is the accusers who are really the bigots.
That is exactly what some people DON'T want.
Jon is a fine guy, and a good scholar. I wrote one of his tenure recs, which, obviously, was successful.
Good work on your part, LS.
This is a story I have never heard and it needs to be told. This is just evidence of the wholesale cover up by the left.
"The April 11 ad, which did not name Bean, said the article "quotes questionable sources," "uses unsubstantiated statistics" and "repeats inflammatory rumors."
So now 'court records' are 'questionable resources'.
These people have no shame.
So the Academic world runs to the defense of Ward Churchill, but stings this guy up for a lynching?
WTF?
Odd thing is, by going after Bean, more people now are hearing about the Zebra Killings. They show themselves in the foot....
It isn't easy for any conservative to get tenure anywhere, but I do believe strongly that a conservative CAN get a job and get tenure by completely outproducing and outworking the liberals. That means if your dept. requires a book or three articles to get tenure, give them a book AND three articles.
ping for later
Me too (ping for later that is)
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