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."
If Daly's complete email was printed, how was he taken out of context?
Guess that is why Daly is the writing teacher and not me.
"Maybe his being there absorbing some of the shrapnel will save some lives."
A college professor doing something useful? And, maybe I'll grow some wings and fly to Starbucks.
Probably depends on what the meaning of the word "was" was... ;-)
***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. ***
Yeah, SURE! Just like the libs saying that Murtha's statement was only political hyperbole and should not be taken seriously. Now this idiot claims his own statement was "metaphoric."
So, I guess that means that whenever a lib makes a strong statement against our President, we all know that they didn't MEAN it. Or, in plain words, THEY ARE LYING, and have admitted it.
Normally I'd come down hard on the right to free speech, but if what this professor is alleged to have emailed Ms. Beach is correct, he was simply INSULTING her personally, and then threatened to silence HER right to free speech. You don't call students FASCISTS and threaten to hound them off campus for having the audacity to believe the war in Iraq is correct and for respecting the service of our soldiers.
This guy sounds like Ward Churchill-lite. Maybe he'll think twice about personally insulting students while he's handing Big Macs through the drive through window at his new job.
Why not drop the good folks at Warren College a polite note expressing your concern?
Board of Trustees:
kdsfarm@prodigy.net
Freeholderdimaio@aol.com
echamberlain@co.warren.nj.us
College President: austin@warren.edu
And, of course, to the miscreant himself: jpdalyca@yahoo.com
I vote for both.
I sent this email to the college's president:
If freedom will only come when soldiers turn their guns on their superiors, then academic freedom will only come when students turn their guns on their professors.
Perhaps professors should be urged to turn their guns on their college President?
How do you like the sound of that?
I think it is terrible.
He is a fool and he should be fired.
End of email
Okay. I'm flexible on the issue. However, the tar-and-feathering should occur prior to termination.
Good. I hope they do get rid of him. He stepped way over the line and behaved very unprofessionaly. He deserves to be fired.
"Tyranny of Liberal Academia" ping list:
I have to ask, "Who the heck hires these idiots and why do the students and parents tolerate it?" And I don't mean just this particular institution.
He is afraid he WILL be fired, I am afraid he WON'T be.
(2) Daly should be fired for incompetence. His message to the student was ungrammatical and poorly written - demonstrating concretely that he lacks the skills required for his job description: professor of English.
(3) Laying questions of "academic freedom" aside for one moment, he has no right to say what he said as a private citizen. His words aid and abet the enemy in time of war and incite insubordination and treason. He should at least be in prison for what he wrote, if not hung from a gallows as he legally deserves.
(4) There is no such thing as "academic freedom" as a practical matter. Academic institutions in this country, with John Daly's full support, practice outright discrimination against academics who have conservative and patriotic points of view. John Daly and his ilk have systematically eliminated academic freedom over the past four decades.
(5) There is no such thing as complete "academic freedom" anyway. Colleges and universities are institutions which are beholden to the taxpayers and consumers which fund them. It is immoral to demand payment or employment from taxpayers and consumers without providing the manner and level of service which you were contracted to provide. There is no right to be paid for doing a bad job.
THey are going to run out the clock on the thanksgiving holiday. We need to smash them with emails next week.
Roger that. Let's see how his 'advice' passes the inversion test:
"Real freedom will come when students in America turn their guns on their Marxist/Communist professors."
Real justice would be burning his home to the ground and driving him and family - if he has one, that is - into the wilderness. There's a poetic quality to that.
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