DePaul University is apparently a school in which deans can demand that professors never insist they're right. Adjunct professor Thomas Klocek taught in the university's School of New Learning in relative anonymity, until the day he decided to challenge some pro-Palestinian students (not his) in a short verbal debate that took place outside of class. He quickly found himself asked to cancel his winter 2005 classes and surrender his much-needed health insurance.
You can read more about the story, and the context in which it took place, here, but the part that catches my eye is the reason for Klocek's lawsuit. He was ostensibly disciplined for his conduct (for an alleged "obscene gesture" at said students). But then he recieved a letter from his boss, dean Susanne Dumbleton, that contained these sentences:
“No students anywhere should ever have to be concerned they will be verbally attacked for their religious belief or their ethnicity,” Dumbleton wrote. “No one should ever use the role of teacher to demean the ideas of others or insist on the absoluteness of an opinion, much less press erroneous assertions.”
Emphasis mine. And if you read that second sentence to mean that, under Dumbleton's watch, professors cannot insist that they are right about something, and a student is wrong, you are correct. This is demented "progressive" educrat-speak at its finest. This flagrant violation of Klocek's free speech has lawyers who specialize in First Amendment and free-speech issues itching to attack DePaul with lawsuits, as well it should.
(From LGF, some of whose readers note that emails to the university are going unanswered. I'm just doing my part to spread this appalling story - which is not new, but keeps getting worse - to the blogosphere. Additional coverage at CruxMag, Roger Simon, Friends of Micronesia, FreeRepublic, ChronWatch, Minion of the Great Satan, Students for Academic Freedom, and Solomonia.)
Update: Linda Seebach sends along reams (megapixels?) of coverage from the Rocky Mountain News archived here, here, here, and here.
Posted by kswygert at April 19, 2005 04:00 PM