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The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

jamesgmartin.center

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Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#81

Post by gumby »

StreamBright wrote: post #29
rland wrote: post #18

I have read probably 4 or 5 of these articles, written by professors/teachers, claiming to have been punished for their speech. 2 common threads about them. The first is that they rarely discuss specifics about what positions or what opinions got them censured. The second is that the comments section is typically full of drive by commenters who aren't responding to the content of the post in particular but to the ide…

What radical idea he was teaching?

If you read his work: that religion is as epistemologically valid as the physical sciences.

I assume this is why he was dismissed from the tenure track early in his career there.

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#82

Post by ptah »

ggm wrote: post #79
ptah wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

minorities should not have to waste energy defending themselves, when others use that energy to further themselves instead

Do you think that applies to the key concern at hand, academic freedom and tenure?

yes, academic staff should not burden minorities with stuff that others are not burdened with in the academic environment and should remove obstacles to make playing field more level

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#83

Post by bradleyjg »

pjc50 wrote: post #61
wpasc wrote: post #6

I believe HN has both right and left leaning individuals, but I wonder if most people would condemn the practice of professors being ousted from schools for daring to challenge their students' "safe space" notions and microagressing them? This is not an isolated event and universities skew heavily in one direction politically. Is it universally agreeable that the end of healthy debate in college is a really, really b…

I think there is a large amount of misunderstanding (and misinformation) about what safe spaces and trigger warnings are actually all about. They have also been subject to a certain amount of .. inflation? But the core ideas are important. "Trigger" originally referred specifically to PTSD. There is a small number of students, such as women who have experienced sexual assault, for whom the subject is more than merely…

People with a bonafide disability are entitled to register their disability with school officials and receive reasonable accommodations. These accommodations are necessarily individualized, after all virtually anything could be a flashback trigger for some or other person with PTSD.

The hordes of people without PTSD that have appropriated the language and our collective sympathy for those that suffer from it to further their own ideological agendas ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#84

Post by cf141q5325 »

stonogo wrote: post #34

This whining conveniently omits his demotion ten years ago, as well as the fact that a faculty vote was held on the matter. Exercising free speech is one thing. Challenging student views is fine. Using a required course as a trolling arena and being a pain in the ass to work with is, huge surprise, a great way not to get your contract renewed.

>Using a required course as a trolling arena

This is actually the most important point of this case in my opinion. Dont screw over students by going off topic in mandatory courses. Stick to the course material, your ego is not more important then putting an entire course of students at a disadvantage. Mandatory courses are mandatory for a reason, its so the students learn the basic foundation of their field of study. You dont get academic freedom on your mandatory lectures, as your day doesnt consist of only mandatory lectures. Create an elective course on the topic if its interessting to you. Profs who do this are the perfect example for why tenure is a problematic idea. Getting rid of a Professor who is sabotaging required courses is a monstrous task and generations of students have to suffer under the ego of one person.

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#85

Post by Veen »

pjc50 wrote: post #72
golergka wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's people's actual experiences First-hand experience gives you unique perspective that you can share with others, but doesn't make you a final authority on the matter. Once you shared your information with others (and assuming there's no trust issues involved), you're on equal grounds as to what to conclude from it.

1) "assuming there's no trust issues involved" is doing an awful lot of load-bearing there 2) One of the things that people keep starting "free speech controversies" over is the idea that some groups are intrinsically less intelligent or apt than others. When, as a member of such a minority group, you are confronted with this idea, what can you conclude from the suggestion that you are intrinsically less intelligent…

> some groups are intrinsically less intelligent or apt than others

Do you have any specific examples? I am aware of controversies about some groups being on average more or less intelligent or more or less apt, but that has little to do with a) whether the variance is intrinsic or b) the capacities of any particular individual.

If the instructor is right about variance between groups, why does it follow that an individual should drop out? I wouldn't drop out of school upon hearing that on average Jews and people of Asian-descent are more intelligent than members of my ethnic group -- it is both true and irrelevant to my academic abilities or status, or whether the instructor is bigoted (they may or may not be, but making a true statement isn't evidence either way).

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#86

Post by ausbah »

I feel like I'm always a bit disappointed whenever I see discussion around topics like this. Whenever cases like this are brought up, I think they're usually presented in a very one sided manner that is intent or pushing a single perspective or agenda of sorts. So the subsequent discussion around the topic becomes equally distorted.

I am not saying the professor in this article wasnt wrongly fired, but I wish there was a bit more discretion in the comments because this article was a.) a multi party account written by one person and b.) written to push a perspective that puts him in a positive light. I think there may be more to the story here.

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#88

Post by richardhod »

etrevino wrote: post #75
WesternStar wrote: post #70

I think the way to read the response of the Faculty Comittee is this. He was an adjunct he hasn't earned the protection of academic freedom. He gets to keep his job if he fulfills what we feel like is necessary to be a member of our community. We feel like he's a negative experience for students and we don't think his addition is worthwhile. I'm all for not indulging the carebears but the message "You were allowed to…

He wasn't an adjunct. Some universities (or schools within universities) do five year contracts now as an alternative approach to tenure.

Precisely this. I find it appalling that an associate professor was not given tenure, because that is normally a tenured position, particularly since he'd been there 20 years

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#89

Post by Shivetya »

Welcome to the Heckler's Veto becoming the norm of higher education if not corporate life. This is the method of choice in almost all instances of issues surrounding race, religion, and orientation, now.

Look at Intersectionality[1] for clues to why the situation has gotten out of hand. In essence there are so many levels of grievance. In effect, unless you are part of the class of people your right to discuss or raise an issue is called into question and by default denied.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#90

Post by richardhod »

stonogo wrote: post #34

This whining conveniently omits his demotion ten years ago, as well as the fact that a faculty vote was held on the matter. Exercising free speech is one thing. Challenging student views is fine. Using a required course as a trolling arena and being a pain in the ass to work with is, huge surprise, a great way not to get your contract renewed.

Do you have a source? This sounds useful
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