Posted on 11/22/2005 6:21:40 AM PST by pookie18
Emergency meeting scheduled tonight on remark soldiers should kill superiors
New Jersey college's board of trustees has called for an emergency meeting tonight to discuss how to handle the controversy surrounding an e-mail by a professor suggesting soldiers in Iraq should kill their superior officers.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the e-mail by adjunct English instructor John Daly of Warren County Community College was a reply to freshman Rebecca Beach for her announcement of a campus program last Thursday featuring decorated Iraq war hero Lt. Col. Scott Rutter.
Daly wrote: "Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors."
Daly said Sunday he was worried he would be fired tonight and already had been told not to show up for the three classes he was scheduled to teach today, according to Inside Higher Ed, an online news source.
The instructor said he stood by the e-mail message, but it was being taken out of context. His comment about soldiers turning their guns on superiors was meant "in the most metaphoric sense," he explained.
Daly also said that because Beach was never one of his students, he thought she was a "Young America's Foundation organizer and sent the message with that in mind.
He would have used a different tone if he had known she was a freshman, he said, although the content wouldn't have changed.
In his e-mail, Daly said he would ask his students to boycott the event and also vowed "to expose [her] right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like [Rebecca's] won't dare show their face on a college campus."
Young America's Foundation, which came to Beach's aid, said that besides organizing the event, Beach's offense was hanging up fliers contrasting the number of people killed under communism to those liberated under President Reagan.
Beach responded to Daly's written tirade with a demand that Warren President William Austin institute seminars on free speech and sensitivity to teach intolerant faculty members to be respectful of differing opinion.
The college has issued three statements since the controversy began, with support for Daley apparently declining with each one, Inside Higher Ed said.
On Thursday, the college posted a statement on its website saying:
The viewpoints of this professor in no way depict the views of Warren County Community College, its administration, or the Board of Trustees. The College does however support the constitution, the first amendment, and the right to free speech.
Additionally, Mr. Daly's message was sent as a one-to-one message, via e-mail, to one person, and not to the college community. Finally, the College is viewing this message as a personnel issue and will be addressing it according to the policies and procedures of the College.
Austin attended the lecture Thursday night, and the next day, the college's statement, noting the speech went well, added criticism of Daley, quoting Austin as saying the e-mail was "disgraceful and offensive."
Saturday, the college announced the board had scheduled the emergency meeting, noting Tuesday was the first day such a meeting could be held legally.
"The Board of Trustees intends to consider the welfare and rights of its students, the college community, and the public in lieu [sic] of recent events. The board will also consider personnel issues," the statement said.
In the interview last night, according to Inside Higher Ed, Daly said it was entirely appropriate for him to criticize "a pro-war rally."
People should be outraged that military recruiters are able to attract the college's students to enlist because they can't afford tuition and find good jobs when they graduate.
"The YAF is trying to turn back affirmative action and to promote the war, and I have a right to speak out," said Daly, who noted he's been teaching at Warren for about a year.
He also teaches at another school but declined to give the name because of the current controversy.
Referring to the threat of being fired, Daly said his situation reflects a trend for non-tenured instructors.
"As more and more professors are teaching part time, this is a direct attack on our academic freedom," he said.
Daly's e-mail also claimed that "capitalism has killed many more" people than communism and that "poor and working class people" are recruited to "fight and die for EXXON and other corporations."
Didn't they do that in Communist China?
"Daly just found out theat even though we have freedom of speech there are responsibilities and consequences when we use it."
An excellent point, which is lost on most liberals/ACLU'ers.
A military career has always been a very good option, unlike being an adjunct English professor.
Fire his sorry -ss! He can practice his 'freedom' from a soapbox on a street corner rather than be supported by tax dollars!
I don't care who ya are, that's a funny joke right there! :-)
My local CC fired my freshman physics professor just because he told some girl in my class: "You need to grow up" , after she complained the test was too hard...
It is amazing. But what is really amazing is that he thinks he is a loyal American citizen. These guys just kill me. ;)
Better a good ugh "debate" in the male bathroom at his next resturaunt outing.. Fragging would only make him a moonbat martyr.. Looking into the eyes of death might have more impact than the dirty deed.. He must feel invulnerable..
Read some of the REAL info on DDT (such as at junkscience.com. Many things can case eggshell thinning and multiple tests have proven that DDT is NOT one of them.
I wonder how many students have been silenced and intimidated by this kind of professor.
But whose pc was he on?
Frankly, if someone is so STOOPID as to put something like that in an e-mail, he shouldn't be teaching college.
Thank you.
Good point. I know if I used my employers computer to send this type of message I would be fired even if I had only used it to access my personal account. We have written documentation that we have to sign yearly in order to use my employer's computers.
If done correctly, he'd be physically unable to teach.
there is a pic of him on WND. :)
That is my only serious alternative, I'd hate my sons to have to graduate from the school of hard knocks like I did.
I'd say this guy is going to be fired. IMHO this is not so good, really. Political discourse shouldn't end this way.
The problem the guy faces is that his emails just weren't civil. No matter how he turns or twists or explains, his message was hostile and inappropriate for a teaching professional.
On the other hand, many of the responses to his situation that we see on this thread aren't all that civil, either. Some of those Frrerepublic posters probably are professionals as well. I'm sure that all of us have chosen to write messages that are more appropriate for our job situations than he has. .... But still.
I don't want any of us to lose jobs over this thing-- Daly or us Freepers. Civility is hard to teach when there is serious conflict and someone is getting hurt.
I do insist on civility in my educational community, though. I'd guess that Daly's college will, too.
Good comment -- and, yes, Freepers are sometimes just as guilty of 'inappropriateness' as DUers...hence my comment encouraging a POLITE note to the Warren mgmt regarding Mr Daly. Here's what I sent to President Austin (and Daly) several days ago:
Is it possible that the reported text of instructor John Daly's e-mail to Warren student Rebecca Beach is a forgery, or has been mis-represented in some way? I ask this question because I simply cannot believe that a faculty member would attempt to bully a student in such a manner, or that a faculty member would be so openly hostile to the expression of views with which he disagrees. Never mind the content of his e-mail, or what it says about Mr Daly's attitudes toward his country and those who have volunteered to serve in its military forces -- I'm simply aghast at the apparent intellectual thuggishness of its spirit.
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