How wide a berth?
Evan Coyne Maloney argues that the University of Colorado should not fire Professor Ward Churchill for his comment that the victims of 9/11 got what they deserved for being little Adolph Eichmanns. Says Maloney,
Creating an environment where tenured professors can be fired for controversial remarks is a dangerous precedent to set. Academic freedom provides a wide berth, and that’s by design. Sometimes, controversy is merely the result of childish, mean-spirited remarks, but it’s also true that many of mankind’s most brilliant thinkers aroused controversy in their day. If they’d been silenced because others were upset by what they had to say, then we’d all be poorer for it. To ensure that professors can safely pursue the most innovative thinking, academic freedom should be respected.
I'm sympathetic to this argument, but I'm not sure that the berth of academic freedom is wide enough to encompass advocating or condoning genocide, which seems to be where Churchill was heading.
Maloney goes on to argue that "by giving Churchill tenure, the university made a tacit promise to stand behind him in the face of controversy." But, again, I'm not certain that the tacit promise went this far.
Meanwhile, Amy Ridenour thinks the solution is to get rid of tenure which, she says, fosters laziness and incivilitly. "That way, the next time a Ward Churchill situation develops, his employer -- the public, in this case -- can simply do what it thinks best."
HINDROCKET adds: I think the whole tenure system needs to be rethought. It doesn't make any sense to cover all misdeeds with the blanket of "controversy," and say that because a professor is "controversial"--regardless of whether that means he's a Republican or a pederast--he is protected. The taxpayers of Colorado are paying Professor Churchill's salary, and they and others pay tuition so that their children can be competently educated. Churchill is obviously not a competent educator. There is no reason in the world why taxpayers and parents should be compelled to pay his salary in perpetuity, no matter how much of an idiot he is. If it requires a change in the tenure system to inject a modicum of common sense into our universities, let's reform the tenure system.
Some will say: but that will leave our universities susceptible to currents of politics or fashion. To which I answer: Really? You think? As opposed to what--the situation we have now, in which any scholar who admits to conservative or Republican tendencies is less likely to be hired as a professor than I am to play in the NBA? Cry me a river.
