TWO sides to every story; let’s start with Gonzalez:
“Stellar Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez Denied Fair Hearing by Iowa State Board of Regents
By: Discovery Staff
Discovery Institute
February 7, 2008
The Board of Regents of the State of Iowa has denied the tenure appeal of Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Iowa State University (ISU). Dr. Gonzalez’s appeal has been ongoing since the summer of 2007, when he was first denied tenure by ISU.
“We are extremely disappointed that the Board of Regents refused to give Dr. Gonzalez a fair hearing in his appeal,” said Gonzalez’s attorney Chuck Hurley. “They say in Iowa that academic freedom is supposed to be the ‘foundation of the university.’ That foundation is cracked.”
ISU has consistently maintained that Dr. Gonzalez’s tenure denial has nothing to do with intelligent design (ID). But secret e-mails exchanged by ISU faculty who voted against his tenure and statements in Dr. Gonzalez’s tenure file showed that intelligent design was the overriding factor in his tenure denial. The Board of Regents refused to admit much of this evidence into the record in Dr. Gonzalez’s appeal.
“The Board of Regents would not allow into the record extensive e-mail documentation showing that Dr. Gonzalez was denied tenure not due to his academic record, but because he supports intelligent design,” said Casey Luskin, Program Officer in Public Policy and Legal Affairs at Discovery Institute, where Gonzalez is a senior fellow. “Then the Board refused to grant Dr. Gonzalez the right to be heard through oral arguments. Does it come as any surprise that now they denied his appeal?”’
I want to see the emails. Until then all I see is someone who clearly did not do the work necessary to get tenure and then pulled the ID card when denied it. Since getting to the university his publication rate went in a free fall, he got almost nothing for grants, none of his grad students got their doctorates, and he did almost no collaboration with other scientists at the university. These are the main factors in getting tenure, and he failed miserably on all counts.
Nobody here would be supporting him if he weren’t an ID proponent. If he were black we’d be saying he’s pulling the race card to get something he didn’t deserve. Stay on principle, which shouldn’t change by subject.