Politics Eyed for Professor Leaving Yale

Findlaw.com ^ | October 23, 2005 | MATT APUZZO

[kennedy]

"It's extremely odd that one of the most brilliant anthropologists is being excluded from the department at Yale in such an extraordinary fashion"

Yes, extremely odd. Usually only conservative professors get excluded from Yale (and most other universities).

[Ninian Dryhope]

"Graeber is an anarchist whose counterculture writings are nearly as popular as his academic work."

He'll make a fine democrat.

[rodomila]

Good riddance.

[rodomila]

Good riddance.

[jocon307]

If he is that brilliant I'm sure he'll have no problem getting another gig. Or else he'll have to find some "industrial work" to do.

[CaptainK]

An anarchist who is upset when denied entree into the orderly world of academic tenure. Perfect.

[Ragnorak]

You forget the Liberal Elitist mindset and value system. Trying to unionize Walmart employees is fine-- but try and unionize the Yale Grad students...

[Larry Lucido]

Anarchists have union cards?

[FreedomFarmer]

Real anarchists are not only rare, but exceedingly dangerous. An intelligent one scares the crap out of even the most condescending Yale socialist.

[kennedy]

If he is that brilliant I'm sure he'll have no problem getting another gig. Or else he'll have to find some "industrial work" to do.

"Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've worked in the private sector. They expect results."

Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd)
Ghostbusters, 1984

[Decepticon]

"You're going to cut it either way depending on how you feel about anarchists and how you feel about Yale."

A Yale anarchist.......LOL! Maybe he should just anarchy his butt down to Patagonia and live what he teaches. What a poser.

[megatherium]

Don't jump to the conclusion that universities are havens for slackers. Even fairly mediocre universities now require professors to publish a certain amount of work to be given tenure. This can be stressful, on top of teaching three courses and doing often time-consuming committee work. Some professors stop researching when they do get tenure, but most continue to publish research -- both because they like to do research (you become a college prof because you're totally into the subject you specialize in), and because you don't get as big of pay increases if you aren't productive. (And you want to be promoted to full professor, too.)

[GregoTX]

"Enrique Mayer, a Yale anthropology professor who was in the department's meeting, said he doesn't believe Graeber was fired simply for being an anarchist."

HA - HA your fired because your to liberal even for a liberal college like Yale.

[kennedy]

My favorite professors, both as an undergraduate and in graduate classes, were adjunct professors that were not on a tenure track. Most were teaching as a second profession or part time. They were doing it because they liked to teach.

The worst professors that I had were those who had never worked anywere except academia. The also tended to be the most liberal.

[The_Media_never_lie]

I would step up to the good professor's defense, but that would be an orderly thing to do and I'm too much of an anarchist for that.

[jmaroneps37]

This IS Yale we're talking about here, right? A guy gets bounced for being a commie scumbag by Yale? I'd say we are making progress.

[Heatseeker]

Hey, sounds like Howard Dean has found a running mate for his next try at the presidency.

[gaspar]

I think Graeber was fired for publishing in Prickly Paradigm Press. How banal!

[ClaireSolt]

Yale is pretty ruthless in weeding out young professors. This guy is too old and unfocused for the long haul.

[TopQuark]

This guy is too old and unfocused for the long haul.

I too think that this, or some such thing, is the real cause. This faculty would never kick out a leftist for being more of a leftist than they are.