Posted on 05/13/2007 11:07:52 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Proponent of intelligent design denied tenure by ISU
By: William Dillon
05/12/2007
Guillermo Gonzalez, an assistant professor of astronomy and physics who argues for the theory of intelligent design, was denied tenure this semester by Iowa State University.
"I was surprised to hear that my tenure was denied at any level, but I was disappointed that the president at the end denied me," Gonzalez said during a telephone interview with The Tribune Friday.
Gonzalez filed an appeal with ISU President Greg Geoffroy on Tuesday, May 8. Geoffroy has 20 days to respond.
While his work is heralded as "path-breaking" by supporters of intelligent design as a way of offering a new theory supporting design in the universe, Gonzalez has come under criticism by the mainstream science community for incorporating the theory of intelligent design into his work.
Opponents maintain that proving intelligent causes or agents is not science but rather the study of theology and philosophy. Some also have accused Gonzalez, an openly non-denominational Protestant, of thrusting religion into science.
In the summer of 2005, three faculty members at ISU drafted a statement against the use of intelligent design in science. One of those authors, Hector Avalos, told The Tribune at the time he was concerned the growing prominence of Gonzalez's work was beginning to market ISU as an "intelligent design school."
The statement collected signatures of support from more than 120 ISU faculty members before similar statements surfaced at the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa.
According to ISU's policy on promotion and tenure, evaluation is based "primarily on evidence of scholarship in the faculty member's teaching, research/creative activities, and/or extension/professional practice."
In addition to that criteria, Gonzalez's department of astronomy and physics sets a benchmark for tenure candidates to author at least 15 peer-reviewed journal articles of quality. Gonzalez said he submitted 68, of which 25 have been written since he arrived at ISU in 2001.
"I believe that I fully met the requirements for tenure at ISU," he said.
Gonzalez said he would rather not comment on why he believes he was denied tenure.
On Friday, Geoffroy declined comment on why Gonzalez was denied tenure.
"Since an appeal is on my desk that I will have to pass judgment on, it is not appropriate for me to offer any comment," he wrote in an e-mail to The Tribune.
In addition to his research and teaching at ISU, Gonzalez is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a conservative Seattle think tank leading the intelligent design movement.
John G. West, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the institute, said he sees this as a clear case of "ideological discrimination" by ISU against Gonzalez. He said he thinks the statement against intelligent design drafted at ISU played a large part in the eventual denial of Gonzalez's tenure.
"What happens to the lone faculty member who doesn't agree and happens to be untenured," he asked. "That is practically, with a wink and a nod, a call to deny him tenure."
Faculty members typically leave a university if they are denied tenure.
ISU considered 66 faculty cases for promotion and tenure during the past academic year. Only three, including Gonzalez, were denied tenure.
William Dillon can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 361, or William.Dillon@amestrib.com.
ping
Interesting - you would imagine a professor of astronomy would be aware of the existance of objects older than 6000 years. I wonder how he reconciles the two?
Ping me when the Discovery Institute actually makes a discovery.
I see that Iowa State and Ames, Iowa are trying to catch up with Madison, Wisconsin. So sad, ISU is my sister and brother-in-law’s alma mater. He was #1 in his class there at Army ROTC, which gave him a regular Army commission. He is due to retire this year as an O-5 or maybe O-6.
Do a google search on Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design. Once you understand the difference, feel free to retract your “question.”
Plenty of literature out there explaining how that is possible. You might want to check some of it out.
I suspect ISU tenures scientists all the time. ID is not science, it’s just goofy.
Well, sir, I would imagine that an intelligent poster to FR would be aware of the difference between young-earth creationism and intelligent design.
Intelligent design does not deny the evidence of science, whether astrophysics or the fossil record. It merely says that God is behind it all.
Two? Which two?
Your logic is flawed in that it includes a false either-or limitation: “either there is no intelligent design in the universe, or the universe is 6000 years old.”
It might not be science but it sure is mathematics.
The odds of human DNA evolving naturally into it's current form is billions to one.
DNA is a program. And if there is a program, then there has to be a programmer.
Guillermo Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1993 from the University of Washington. He has done post-doctoral work at the University of Texas, Austin and at the University of Washington and has received fellowships, grants and awards from such institutions as NASA, the University of Washington, Sigma Xi (scientific research society) and the National Science Foundation.
From the Discovery Institute
When a nation or campus reaches the point of calling evil good and Good evil those who believe Exodus 20:11 is truth are fired, ridiculed and worse.
Until then, universities are free to grant tenure to only their best and brightest.
I don't think that it was mentioned in the article that he promotes that or adheres to that belief. I believe that the universe is many billions of years old. I believe that matter does not or has not, and cannot spontaneously comes into existence. I do not believe that science ever has observed it, or has advanced a arguable theory that it can or has. Therfore I think there must be a reason we are here besides 'it just happened.'
That being said I think the arguments about creation/evolution or intelligent design/big bang are just distractions for those who believe in God. We don't need to be trying to prove our faith in a classroom, we need to be proving in the lives of people we encounter by caring about our neighbors and taking care of those in need. It would change people more if we still cared about those we disagree with rather than trying to make them agree with our views on the origins of the universe and man.
“Until then, universities are free to grant tenure to only their best and brightest.”
The best and the brightest do not deny the existence of God.
But how could it be, then, that those who do deny the existence of God think themselves the best and the brightest?
The answer, surprisingly, comes from a throw-away line by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: “Mediocrity knows nothing better than itself.”
>>When a nation or campus reaches the point of calling evil good and Good evil those who believe Exodus 20:11 is truth are fired, ridiculed and worse.<<
AS we have been discussing in this thread, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1832715/posts its really more a case of a department having an obligation to to not tenure people who will hurt the school’s reputation.
With Gonzalez being a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute while the Discovery Institute tries to get non-science taught in science class, any school would be foolish to give him tenure.
ID needs to correctly predict something not predicted by other theories before it can begin to be introduced as science.
Do you really believe that only "the best and the brightest" are granted tenure at universities?
Have you ever set foot on a university?
"I believe that I fully met the requirements for tenure at ISU," he said.
That seems to be the nub of the matter. I would add that it depends what "peer reviewed journals" he published in, and whether he has made original contributions to astronomy. Apart from that, they have no grounds to deny him tenure because they disagree on a philosophical matter. But Darwinists are completely intolerant, and anxious to hold on to their educational monopoly by any means necessary.
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