I’m a bit late to this story, but it is outrageous. Professor McAdams, longtime member of the Wisconsin blogosphere, has been suspended for daring to criticize a Marquette TA who forbade a student from actually engaging in an open exchange of opposing viewpoints (THE HORROR!).
In November, Prof. John McAdams (Marquette political science) — who blogs at Marquette Warrior — wrote a post critical of a philosophy instructor, Cheryl Abbate. (Abbate is a graduate student but was apparentlythe sole instructor for the particular section of the Theory of Ethics class, as is not uncommon for undergraduate courses at research universities.) The post faulted Abbate for allegedly not allowing criticism of homosexuality in class discussions
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The letter doesn’t specifically indicate what McAdams is being investigated for; and no passages in the documents that the dean attached were highlighted in a way that suggests specific details on this. But McAdamsbelieves that this suspension and removal from campus must have been caused by the earlier post: “Since we have done nothing particularly controversial lately besides blog about the Philosophy instructor (one Cheryl Abbate), we have to assume that’s what it is about.” And Marquette seems to support this; I wrote them last night saying, “Prof. McAdams’ Dec. 16 post suggests that the paid suspension and the exclusion from campus was triggered entirely by his Nov. 9 post.
Marquette is free to stifle debate and offer the most closed-minded liberal indoctrination it wants, but it has lost the right to claim that it is a school that promotes or even tolerates the free exchange of ideas.
Marquette has ceased to be a Catholic institution.
Today, Marquette stands for embracing every form of sin and wickedness apart from God’s law.
Worse, Marquette punishes the good of those calling out the evil Marquette now embraces.
Looks like I’m adding Marquette to UW-Milwaukee on my list of higher education cesspools.
Kevin Scheuemann, you are absolutely right. I’m an MU grad and I thank God I graduated from there at a time when free speech was still allowed (although I became very cynical about the Jesuit version of Catholicism). I’m ashamed of my alma mater. I wish I could say I will stop giving to them but that stopped years ago, when they dropped “Warriors” for “Golden Eagles.” This case is far more serious.
Details matter in this case. Suppose I was taking a math class and raised my hand and said “yes, but what about gay rights?” My instructor would be quite right to tell me that it’s not relevant. It would not be called “forbidding me from engaging in an open exchange of opposing viewpoints.” It would be called “staying on topic.” What I read in Inside Higher Ed seems to indicate that this case was a little bit like that.
Even if that is the case… how did McAdams’ criticism warrant suspension? If those are the facts, then it would be perfectly acceptable for someone to refute McAdams’ critique, but to suspend him for opining? That’s hardly fostering an intellectually open campus.
Fair point. I suppose we’ll learn their justification for this when they have reached some kind of conclusion.
“Fair point. I suppose we’ll learn their justification for this when they have reached some kind of conclusion.”
If any of this was justified, then every professor and student can be suspended at any given time on any campus for anything they right.
This is the typical liberal campus hate mongering for speech that liberals disagree with. I know. At UW-Milwaukee, I was threatened with suspension, discipline, academic tribunals, and other chilling intellectual speech murder for daring to oppose the UWM UPASS in the newspaper. It took a whole team of 1st amendment speech lawyers on speed dial to get these hateful liberals to back off.
I fully expect the liberal hate mongers at UW-milwaukee to do this, but Marquette? Catholics running Marquette should have an understanding of right and wrong, good and evil…but maybe not.
I’m perpetually offended by the administration of UW Milwaukee, and now Marquette…let’s suspend them!
that auto correction must be written by liberals.
That should say …”anything they write.”
Never change, Kevin Scheunemann.
Oh wait, that’s redundant.
Major,
So having unwaivering convictions about good and evil is a problem these days?
Doesen’t liberal diversity allow me to call liberal university speech oppressors evil?
If not, duly noted.
Having been previously abused by liberal university administrations for free speech, I’m especially mindful to call out and demonize this kind of evil.