"...association members said that they feared a general erosion of academic freedom in the CUNY system. Several cited the way the central administration and the leaders of Brooklyn College did not defend Timothy Shortell, a professor who was elected to chair the sociology department, but withdrew amid press criticism of his previous writings that harshly criticized religious people."
Timothy Shortell is a Ward Churchill wannabe that writes about how it was the fault of Jews, Christians, and the US in general that the twin towers were attacked. And that it was an appropriate response by the oppressed peoples of the world (you know, the ones that wouldn't exist except for the US). In addition, he regularly consorts with folks that advocate the violent overthrow of the US Government.
In his 'scholarly' writings, he advances the notion that it is the IDEA of EVIL (rooted in Judeo-Christian ideology) that CAUSES EVIL. His conclusion is that if we stopped thinking, believing and speaking about evil, it would disappear. More specifically, if there were no Christianity or Judaism there would be no evil.
Guess what? This stuff didn't play to well in Brooklyn. People got pissed off, he then responded by calling his detractors "Moral Retards" -- which didn't help the situation -- and CUNY canned him.
The truly amazing part of the whole story is that the flaming liberal administration of CUNY had the balls to kick him out.
dung.
Are you sure that they kicked Timothy Shortell out of CUNY? All I have read is that he dropped his bid to become chair of the sociology dept.