Tenure Ending Blog Post

[Kaitzilla]

Student who intentionally disrupted a class, using a bait and tape tactic to produce a clip that would embarrass the institution probably for no particular reason other than to boost his social media 'scores'. Yeah, I can see why supporting that student might not sit well with the administration. Especially since the language in the 'supportive' blog post is also hostile to the institution, and is apparently something the professor had been warned about previously.

Repetitive biting of the hand that signs your paycheck is a sure way to stop getting payed. As it should be.

He really derailed the class with his after-class discussion.

Can colleges even be embarrassed anymore when they shut down debate?
It seems like more of a high five moment these days.

Supporting undergrads who pay less $$$ than grad students never sits well with admin ya.

The old fool thought tenure would protect him!
Being 69 years old, they were probably looking to ease him out anyway.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Student who intentionally disrupted a class, using a bait and tape tactic to produce a clip that would embarrass the institution probably for no particular reason other than to boost his social media 'scores'. Yeah, I can see why supporting that student might not sit well with the administration. Especially since the language in the 'supportive' blog post is also hostile to the institution, and is apparently something the professor had been warned about previously.

Repetitive biting of the hand that signs your paycheck is a sure way to stop getting payed. As it should be.

Well we can get to the moral judgements later. Right now I'm just trying to figure out WTH the story actually is. The first 10 or so replies in this thread seem to be operating under the assumption that the female instructor was the professor that got fired. I was already confused because the opening "blog post" (which just looked like a news story) made no mention of her being fired. And I didn't read the second link containing the actual news story, because it was just marked as "additional background" or something so I didn't think I needed to. I think the OP was rather confusingly structured...

Anyway, don't mind me, carry on.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Well we can get to the moral judgements later. Right now I'm just trying to figure out WTH the story actually is. The first 10 or so replies in this thread seem to be operating under the assumption that the female instructor was the professor that got fired. I was already confused because the opening "blog post" (which just looked like a news story) made no mention of her being fired. And I didn't read the second link containing the actual news story, because it was just marked as "additional background" or something so I didn't think I needed to. I think the OP was rather confusingly structured...

Anyway, don't mind me, carry on.

My apologies.

I thought tenure being revoked was the bigger story and what caused it was just the side story.


The female instructor didn't get fired.
The guy writing something on the internet criticizing her did.

 

[JollyRoger]

The fired prof can pull himself up by his bootstraps and found his own university.

 

[uppi]

This is the important information:

3. The professor had previously been warned about including names of students in blog posts and had apparently agreed not to do so. These other blog posts also lead to threats against the named students.

Attacking students/TAs in public after being warned not to do that and thus willfully endangering students is a very valid reason for termination. His opinion about the matter is irrelevant for his termination.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Being 69 years old, they were probably looking to ease him out anyway.

You do love those conspiracy theories, don't you?

 

[Gori the Grey]

I think that the way that Katzilla presented the information in the opening post has created some of the confusion. One should read his second link (the Atlantic article) first. That tells the story of Marquette U stripping Professor John McAdams of tenure. One key piece of information in that story is a blog that McAdams posted that described (his take on) an in-class interaction and subsequent taped private conversation between a student and a graduate student in McAdam's department (philosophy) who was that student's teacher. That blog is Katzilla's first post; it should be read second (by anyone wanting to get him or herself up on the case).

There are two issues: 1) whether professors (the graduate student in this case) should rule some topics/discussions/viewpoints out of bounds in their classes because they might be offensive to certain students in class. This is a serious and difficult issue and worth discussing, but, given how McAdams chose to broach it, the second issue is

2) whether the university is right to strip McAdams of tenure and fire him on the grounds that the way McAdams broached issue #1 in his blog was inappropriate because it named the graduate student in question.

The best thing to read is the dismissal letter that Katzilla linked in a later post (post #13). The university, as they must because firing a tenured professor is a big thing, lays out the case against him carefully: what was objectionable in his actions, his history of such actions, and why tenure doesn't protect the kind of speech he employed.

Both issues probably warrant some discussion, but the overall situation is made complex because of the roles of the three key figures and the hybrid status of one of them: 1) Tenured professor (McAdams)-2) grad student/professor-3) undergrad in #2's class who ran to #1 when #2 wouldn't let him opine that gay couples shouldn't be allowed to adopt.

 

[JollyRoger]

You see what trouble ensues when a tenured professor tries to adopt a troll. The undergrad may be onto something.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Being 69 years old, they were probably looking to ease him out anyway.

You do love those conspiracy theories, don't you?

The other possible conspiracy theory here is that McAdams, near retirement anyway, knew full well how this would go down, and just wanted a last big messy public FU to MU, where it doesn't sound like he's been happy.

 

[BvBPL]

She needed to be intimidating a student...specifically the one who was only interested in derailing the class for the purpose of making his bait and tape mission a success. It probably wasn't really difficult to recognize the punk had some sort of agenda, though it apparently took her a while to figure out what it was.

Probably part of the issue is that Abbate herself is a student.

Although, interestingly, U of Colorado, Boulder, doesn't list her as being a part of the Philosophy department at this time.

 

[dutchfire]

This is the important information:


Attacking students/TAs in public after being warned not to do that and thus willfully endangering students is a very valid reason for termination. His opinion about the matter is irrelevant for his termination.

Yeah, this. Mistreating your students or employees can make you lose your job.

 

[Bootstoots]

The best thing to read is the dismissal letter that Katzilla linked in a later post (post #13). The university, as they must because firing a tenured professor is a big thing, lays out the case against him carefully: what was objectionable in his actions, his history of such actions, and why tenure doesn't protect the kind of speech he employed.

I agree: it makes much more sense to read this in reverse chronological order, starting with the dismissal letter. Then the second story from the OP about the suspension of the professor, and finally the original blog post.

This way the actual reasons for the university's behavior are obvious. As presented, the story is made to sound like "conservative student silenced by liberal instructor, conservative tenured professor fired for merely supporting conservative student on Internet". This isn't the reason they're going after his tenure, though, and it wasn't obvious to me what was going on until I looked at the letter, where everything is laid out explicitly.

 

[Kyriakos]

So this was a brofessor?

Anyway, the story sounded horrible from the start. Some people are just utterly irresponsible with their actions.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

She should just have said "I don't think this is a fruitful topic"
lol @ "I have a right to say what I think", as usually

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, just got back from the second and final meeting in the fifth week of the current run of my lib philosophy program, and for the first time there was some tension when two people started talking about politics. I (thankfully) managed a couple of min later to calm things down, mentioning that some issues are just not meant as part of the program which is already set in 120 pages & bibliography anyway (politics and religion being the main issues which are not really meant for the course there)/ presocratics and platosocrates mainly).

Imagine what would happen if they then started saying: I have a right to say what i want to say! You can't silence me! ^^

 

[cybrxkhan]

Hm, just got back from the second and final meeting in the fifth week of the current run of my lib philosophy program, and for the first time there was some tension when two people started talking about politics. I (thankfully) managed a couple of min later to calm things down, mentioning that some issues are just not meant as part of the program which is already set in 120 pages & bibliography anyway (politics and religion being the main issues which are not really meant for the course there)/ presocratics and platosocrates mainly).

Imagine what would happen if they then started saying: I have a right to say what i want to say! You can't silence me! ^^

For some reason reminds me when my (Iranian) professor of Iranian history invited one of his friends, a rabbi who happened to be a professor of Jewish history at another uni, over for a lecture/talk/whatever. During the Q&A session, one guy asked some questions about Israel, Iran, and the latter's nuclear program, that was clearly aggressive in tone. Problem was, the lecture/talk was just supposed to be about comparing historical Zoroastrian and Jewish customs and rites, such as similarities in hygienic practices. The Rabbi tried to answer the question(s) tactfully while also trying to move the discussing back to the main topic, but the guy just kept pounding him with a questions and basically being an ass. My professor's reaction was basically a facepalm and embarrassment.

 

[Farm Boy]

lol @ "I have a right to say what I think", as usually

<shrugs> There is a lot of bias in the consecrated halls of higher education. Learning how to steer good discussion without being draconian is a talent many of those with tenure do not possess. Might be nice if more people figured it out to some degree earlier in career.

 

[classical_hero]

I love how slowly university is slowly becoming free of free speech.

 

[Smote]

College students are children:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...nts_are_children_who_must_be_protected.2.html

I'd prefer high school students as adults type thinking, myself

 

[Flying Pig]

I love how slowly university is slowly becoming free of free speech.

As much as universities have a role in being hotbeds of debate and academic freedom, they've also got to be home to huge numbers of young people who just want to get a degree and then get a job. Their first duty is to make sure that those people feel safe. Back in the days when everyone at University was white, male and rich, people could say whatever they liked about poor people, black people or women and it wouldn't make any difference - but now the people they're mocking and belittling might actually be living next to them. Their rights absolutely come before the absolute freedom (which never existed) for anyone to discuss anything, and the universities (usually via the students themselves) are absolutely right to restrict speech in their students' interests.