Posted on 04/13/2006 4:37:50 PM PDT by dukeman
Ohio State University will press forward with frivolous investigation despite ADF letter
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Officials at the Ohio State University are investigating an OSU Mansfield librarian for “sexual harassment” after he recommended four conservative books for a freshman reading program. ADF has demanded that OSU cease its frivolous investigation, yet the university is pressing forward, claiming that it takes the charges “seriously.”
“Universities are one of the most hostile places for Christians and conservatives in America,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David French, who heads ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom. “It is shameful that OSU would investigate a Christian librarian for simply recommending books that are at odds with the prevailing politics of the university.”
Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield’s First Year Reading Experience Committee. The four books he suggested were The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye’or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum. Savage made the recommendations after other committee members had suggested a series of books with a left-wing perspective, by authors such as Jimmy Carter and Maria Shriver.
Savage was put under “investigation” by OSU’s Office of Human Resources after three professors filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment against him, saying that the book suggestions made them feel “unsafe.” The complaint came after the OSU Mansfield faculty voted without dissent to file charges against Savage. The faculty later voted to allow the individual professors to file charges.
On March 28, ADF sent OSU officials a letter informing them of Savage’s constitutional rights. A copy of the letter can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/OSUMansfieldletter.pdf.
The university so far has declined to stop the investigation, saying in its response that it takes “any allegation of sexual harassment seriously.”
“The OSU Mansfield faculty is attempting to label a librarian as a ‘sexual harasser’ because they disagree with his book suggestions,” said French. “It is astonishing that an entire faculty would vote to launch a sexual harassment investigation because a librarian offered book suggestions in a committee whose purpose was to solicit such suggestions.”
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
Good grief. These profs are supposed to be the cream of the intellectual crop. Since when does the mere placement of a book on a reading list make people feel unsafe??? What happened to free and open debate on college campii? Wait, don't tell me...
I will be starting my first job as a professor in the upcoming school year. I hope my future colleagues aren't as linguine-spined as these folks. What kind of college education is it if you can't read and discuss books representing a variety of opinions? College professors afraid of words? Afraid of opinion? As usual, liberals show how weak they are.
Excuse me, but it's a LIBRARIAN here who's proposing these conservative books to balance a liberal reading list. The librarian in this case is being persecuted by left wing professors on campus. Don't attack the poor librarian. A few of us are conservatives.
The truth WILL make liars feel unsafe.
This would never happen at Penn State.
Tenure policies at universities protect these radicals and they must be changed!
Kafkaesque
Funny, and these idiots go watch "Good Night, and Good Luck" and probably talk about have evil Joe McCarthy was, yet they are much worse.
The Alliance Defense Fund is on the case. I expect you'll see this OSU item on O'Rielly before too long.
"I'm sitting in a Barnes & Noble near the University of Virginia reading and posting to FR. You ought to see some of the looks I'm getting."
Hope someone has your six!
Can't ban the books...
Can't stop the librarians free speech suggestions...
But we can yell HARRASSMENT...of some form.
Ohio reporting. I have heard nothing about this. A tidbit for you: During the last election, GWB made a campaign stop in Mansfield. I was totally shocked that he would visit this city, which is relatively small and has declined significantly because it has lost most all of its manufacturing base. However, as it turns out, that campaign stop illustrates the President's strategy of getting those who live in the more rural areas out to vote for him; that strategy won the election for him. Mansfield is in an area that is big-time conservative.
Wow1 This hits close to home. I'm a reference librarian, and I have occasionally recommended conservative books to patrons. Maybe I'm asking for trouble!
ADF Attorney on Live Radio to Discuss Ohio State Librarian Case
Hear David French LIVE Monday 4/17 at 1:10 PM AZT on Up Front with Vicki McKenna on WIBA AM 1310 (Madison, WI). He will discuss the case of Scott Savage, an Ohio State University librarian who "had the nerve" to recommend conservative books for the freshman reading program and is now being investigated by the university for "sexual harassment."
Listen LIVE here:
http://www.wiba.com/pages/streamnew.html
These professors may actually have a case. If they are steeped in the likes of Antonio Gramsci, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, or Herbert Marcuse, then the writings of Horowitz, Kupelian, and Santorum should, indeed, make them feel unsafe.
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