Poking fun at the perenially offended
UNC Prof Mike Adams, who's known for challenging the politically correct academic environment with humorous mule-headedness, is in trouble yet again. A student was offended by a bumper sticker on his door, and got her daddy to complain to the UNC Board of Trustees. The link goes to a letter he apparently sent to the Board:
Dear UNC-Wilmington Board of Trustees: It has recently come to my attention that a feminist student at UNCW has taken offense to a sticker on my office door which reads "So you're a feminist . . . Isn't that cute." I found this out after obtaining a copy of a letter her father wrote to you, the Board of Trustees. I could comment at some length on the obvious hypocrisy of this student's decision to ask her father to defend feminism for her, but I won't. Let me get straight to the point: I did not put that sticker on my office door.
This terrible misunderstanding is all the result of an experiment on diversity and tolerance that I decided to undertake several years ago. It all started when I noticed that a colleague of mine had a "Mondale/Ferraro '84" sticker on the filing cabinet in her office...Remembering that the university has a provision specifically prohibiting faculty from using "University funds, services, supplies, vehicles, or other property to support or oppose the candidacy of any person for elective public office . . ." I decided to initiate my experiment.
First, I placed a "Clinton/Gore '96" sticker prominently on my office door to see if anyone would take offense. After two years without any complaints, I decided to replace the sticker with one that said "George W. Bush for President." Within a few weeks I heard reports from two faculty members and one staff member saying that someone was preparing to file a complaint about the Bush sticker...I decided it was time to let the faculty in on my little experiment. I did this by sending an e-mail to everyone in the building which began as follows: "You have all been involved in an experiment in tolerance which, unfortunately, some of you have failed..."
As you can imagine, the "liberal" Democrat who was conspiring to punish me for the Bush sticker decided to let the matter go. But, for me, the First Amendment fun was just beginning.
He then goes on to say that he declared his office door a campus "free speech zone", and so was not the one who posted the anti-feminism sticker. He suggests that perhaps the offender's "daddy can call the feminist's daddy and work everything out."
I wonder if the "feminist" in question is actually pissed about this article, instead of the bumper sticker?
Update: Dr. Adams is not only a gadfly, but a bad influence as well: Walter Williams has announced he will follow Dr. Adam's suggested "affirmative action" grading policy. All in the name of social engineering over meritocracy, of course.