Academic Freedom

[BoSoxGal]

This tenured professor has been placed on leave and in under investigation by Ferris University for this welcome speech to his new students incoming this term. The university President or some other big wig obtuse idiot administrator is shocked and appalled by this horrible no good speech.

Incidentally the faculty president stands behind our stalwart professor and says he has been consistently one of the most popular in the university for many years. I can see why. And there is no kind of idiot quite like a university administrator idiot.

It makes me sad if there were actually students offended by this performative video. Teaching at university and my time studying at university was the absolute best time in my life. I wonder if I wouldn’t be so happy there these days.

Anyway, enjoy. (Warning to Meade - he says fuck and cocksucker in the video.)

[MajGenl.Meade]

Thank you BSG

[Guinevere]

I’m also not getting video clips any longer. Will have to figure that out as well.

[ex-khobar Andy]

There are also stories that the (male) University of Michigan president who earns $900,000 plus has been fired for having an affair with a subordinate. While we don't know who the woman is (or, I think, if indeed the object of his affection is female but it makes no difference) there seems to be no evidence that there was misuse of power or any use of University property (except an email address). I think in general a boss should stay away from their own doorstep in affairs, but it seems as if these are two grownups in a mutually agreeable relationship.

Link to the NPR story.

Whether a university president (or anyone) should earn close to $1 million per year is another rant for another day.

[Long Run]

Getting terminated probably made him really blue.

[Long Run]

Thank you BSG

And his profanity detracted from the parody he was attempting and partially successful with.

[BoSoxGal]

Thank you BSG

And his profanity detracted from the parody he was attempting and partially successful with.

Did you not watch the whole video? The profanity was directly quoted from a scene in Deadwood and he used it to discuss how not to plagiarize when doing papers and presentations.

Honestly I think he’s funny and engaging and I can see why his way of engaging students over the years made his classes so popular. Some college professors are dry as dust and what they teach is rarely remembered beyond the midterms and finals. Professors like this guy engage students in ways that they remember their whole lives.

Also young people are just not so hung up by ‘vulgarity’ as many of the oldsters on this board. That’s just facts.

[Guinevere]

There are also stories that the (male) University of Michigan president who earns $900,000 plus has been fired for having an affair with a subordinate. While we don't know who the woman is (or, I think, if indeed the object of his affection is female but it makes no difference) there seems to be no evidence that there was misuse of power or any use of University property (except an email address). I think in general a boss should stay away from their own doorstep in affairs, but it seems as if these are two grownups in a mutually agreeable relationship.

Link to the NPR story.

Whether a university president (or anyone) should earn close to $1 million per year is another rant for another day.

Do we really have to have the discussion about imbalance of power and coercion in supervisor-subordinate relationships, again? They are all about misuse of power. Demonstrates exceedingly poor judgment, and there is quite likely a non-fraternization policy in place, too.

As for the salary, it’s a lot lot lot lot lot lot of work. You devote your entire life, 24/7 to your job. You have 40,000 students and probably oh 7,500 employees (between staff and academics) . I’d much rather that kind of salary go to a university President than many many for-profit entities.

[BoSoxGal]

I think the salary is obscene but then I don’t really think anyone works hard enough to be worth nearly a million dollars, certainly not a university president - and I’ve worked for one so I’m not pulling that opinion out of my ass.

As to the consequences of his relationship with a subordinate- I endorse Guin’s comments and will just add that he was hoisted by his own petard - HE put the zero tolerance policy in place.

[Big RR]

s for the salary, it’s a lot lot lot lot lot lot of work. You devote your entire life, 24/7 to your job. You have 40,000 students and probably oh 7,500 employees (between staff and academics) . I’d much rather that kind of salary go to a university President than many many for-profit entities.

Or college football coaches.

As for the affair, some people just don't get it; it clearly is an imbalance of power, and there's simply no excuse for behavior of that sort.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I said:

there seems to be no evidence that there was misuse of power

Guin said:

Do we really have to have the discussion about imbalance of power and coercion in supervisor-subordinate relationships, again? They are all about misuse of power.

Just to make sure I have this right: is this an 'always' thing? For all we know this relationship might have been between two lonely hearts of a certain age who found each other. If there is no evidence that Person A used his authority to advance the career of / threaten / cajole Person B, is it necessarily an evil thing by definition? It certainly can be; and it often is; and some situations (e.g., professor/student) are by definition out of bounds.

Obviously there is a lot we do not know and it's not our business to know and Michigan may have made the right decision. But I disagree that they are "all about misuse of power."

[Guinevere]

I said:

there seems to be no evidence that there was misuse of power

Guin said:

Do we really have to have the discussion about imbalance of power and coercion in supervisor-subordinate relationships, again? They are all about misuse of power.

Just to make sure I have this right: is this an 'always' thing? For all we know this relationship might have been between two lonely hearts of a certain age who found each other. If there is no evidence that Person A used his authority to advance the career of / threaten / cajole Person B, is it necessarily an evil thing by definition? It certainly can be; and it often is; and some situations (e.g., professor/student) are by definition out of bounds.

Obviously there is a lot we do not know and it's not our business to know and Michigan may have made the right decision. But I disagree that they are "all about misuse of power."

Yes, it’s an always thing. A wrong thing. Any relationship between a superior and a subordinate is just like a professor student relationship. Age and experience do not matter.

[Guinevere]

As for the salary, my view is informed by being a member of a Board of Trustees and working with, directing and evaluating (and running the evaluation process of), plus searching for and hiring three different law school Presidents. It’s a brutal but incredibly important job, and worth a significant salary. Not every one will be a million dollars, or even close, but for a school the size of Michigan, with so many components, I don’t think it’s outrageous.

[Econoline]

Getting terminated probably made him really blue.

Also, getting blew is probably what made him terminated?

[Long Run]

Ouch, the groan on that was heard from DTW to Dexter.

[BoSoxGal]

As for the salary, my view is informed by being a member of a Board of Trustees and working with, directing and evaluating (and running the evaluation process of), plus searching for and hiring three different law school Presidents. It’s a brutal but incredibly important job, and worth a significant salary. Not every one will be a million dollars, or even close, but for a school the size of Michigan, with so many components, I don’t think it’s outrageous.

My view is formed by also serving on university presidential search committees and working closely with university presidents and other top level administrators. No there is not a single university president in this country who is worth twice the salary paid to the president of the United States. But I acknowledge that your view is shared by most university board of trustees members and top level university administrators and is driving the crisis of unaffordability of higher education especially at state universities and leaving generations of college graduates unable to afford home ownership or to have children because for three decades tuition rates and fees have skyrocketed to feed the insatiable beast that is administration, which does next to nothing to improve the quality of education or the experience of students. My view is shared by most of the 1.5 million university faculty in this country and likely most of the students, too. But no worries the elites on the BOTs and the administrators always win this argument.

[Guinevere]

God forbid anyone have a different opinion than you, BSG. One day, maybe, you will learn how to express yourself without needing to try and denigrate those whose opinions or experiences are different than yours.

[liberty]

Fired conservative professor wins in court — but college’s appeals block his return to classroom | The College Fix

They are going to fight it until they can’t fight it anymore,’ professor’s attorney says
A conservative professor slated to return to the classroom this fall semester after successfully suing his employers for wrongly firing him has been blocked from campus as the college continues to file appeals against several court decisions in the educator’s favor.
Eric Thompson was fired in fall 2017 from his job as a sociology professor of 11 years at Moreno Valley College in Riverside, California.

It came after he faced three investigations from the school: one in 2014 after he led a debate in class on the nature-nurture aspect of same-sex attraction; another in 2015 after he led a classroom discussion on the Supreme Court case to legalize gay marriage; and a third after a student complained Thompson gave her a “D” because she is a lesbian, and he reached out to her via email to try and mend the issue, allegedly violating a no-contact order from administration.
In November 2018, a court arbitrator ruled the Riverside Community College District had to give Thompson his job back, saying the suspension he underwent was sufficient; and in July 2019, a Riverside Superior court judge upheld that award after the district sued to overturn it, the Press-Enterprise reported.

But in September, the college district appealed again — and lost that county-level appeal earlier this month — so now the district has filed an appeal with a California appellate court, said Michael Peffer, who represents Thompson on behalf of Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit law firm.

“In my opinion they are going to fight it until they can’t fight it anymore,” Peffer told The College Fix in a telephone interview Monday. “This is something that the district is holding on to, so unfortunately my client has to deal with this being delayed.”
Thompson, a father of eight, had been excited to return to the classroom this fall semester, Peffer said. Now Thompson’s trying to make ends meet as the court battle continues, he said.

“He is doing OK — he is a positive guy and he has a family who cares about him, so that’s wonderful, and he is trying to do what he needs to do to make a living until he can get back into the classroom,” Peffer said. “But he is in a difficult path right now.”
In a lengthy written statement provided to The College Fix by district representative Renee Vigil on Tuesday, officials are “concerned that the trial court’s decision to uphold the arbitration award discredits and ignores the accounts of multiple students who testified at the hearing about witnessing Professor Thompson’s statements targeting LGBT and women students.”

[BoSoxGal]

God forbid anyone have a different opinion than you, BSG. One day, maybe, you will learn how to express yourself without needing to try and denigrate those whose opinions or experiences are different than yours.

Oh please quit your whinging, when it comes to differences of opinions between us over the years on CSB and here you are the one who has always made it personal and been a bitch about it.

I didn’t denigrate you I denigrated your ridiculous opinion. I stand by it. Only an elitist BOT member hanging out in the elitist world of university administrators would argue that million dollar salaries for university presidents or other administrators or football coaches for that matter were necessary or good for the health of universities. A wealth of evidence establishes otherwise.

[Burning Petard]

I too cannot see video here. But I did see parts of the intro speech from the Ferris professor on Yahoo online news. I was bothered by his statement that their grades were already fixed so there was no point in the students doing any study or work for his class, but he hoped they would come sometimes for the entertainment value.

Thinking on it, and his 'space helmet', it all seemed to be a protest against the school administration pandering to its customers, the parents and students.

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