Let's see...engage in hysterical Nazi-labelling and engage in what the layman calls, "making shit up?" Dozens, maybe hundreds of professors rally to your Academic Free Speech banner shouting 'War to the knife! The knife to the hilt!'

Being too 'Jesus-y?' Crickets, baby.

Thanks as always for the links Ace!

I think Mitchell had it write when he talked about liberals running things in academia. He said "People say liberals run the university. I wish they did. Most liberals understand the need for intellectual diversity. It's the radical left that kills you."

Unfortunately for America is the radical left that has taken over academia and the democratic party.

You have to wonder how long people are going to put up with this nonsense. What's the point of sending your son or daughter to college when they just get bombarded with radical left-wing talking points all day?

Hell, I'm conservative, but I wouldn't want to spend money just to send a kid to school just so he could listen to a professor repeat what Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity said on their radio shows.

If and when I have children who go to college, if they come back saying they're majoring in some sort of ethnic studies, women's studies, gay and lesbian studies, whatever, I'm stopping their tuition payment right then and there. It would be an act of parental irresponsibility not to.

Even if the standards for freedom of academic expression were being equally applied, Prof. Mitchell would still have miles to go before he could catch up with Churchill. Maybe if he'd lied about being a minister, or was selling off forged relics, he might be able to qualify for that crazy eight-figure settlement package.

Probably not, though. I wish we could settle this whole thing Thunderdome-style: Ward Churchill and his toy AK-47 against some snakehandler from Children of the Corn U. who was prepared to get appropriately medieval on his lying ass. Now that would be satisfying.

One quibble. I heard an interview with the Christian Prof on Fox. I think it was with O'Reilly. The Professor in question was not Tenured. In fact, he said that he had been offered Tenure and refused it. Tenure protections, right or wrong in themselves aside, did not apply.

Sorry, that last comment was mine.

That teaching award won't help. I was chatting with an old professor friend last week about one of our former colleagues. Turns out the guy had just gotten fired (pre-tenure). My friend says: "Well he won a teaching award, and as you know that's the kiss of death".

Professors at major universities are openly distainful of teaching. I think in their minds it smacks of a true contribution to society. Much better to write that article proving that Bush's foreign policy has led to the unequal treatment of women in Muslim society.

whats going on in the Peoples Republic of Boulder is at least revealing the truth about so many major universities around the country: the crushing of any "intellectual diversity"- stray from the official line, and prepare to be dealt with

and its true about teaching, most profs would rather be researching and let the grad students run the class, its rare to find one who truly seems to enjoy it

Very true, Max Power. I had a few classes with serious professors when I was in school (late 80s), but even then the teaching tradition was on its last legs. Today the connection between academia and education is all but nonexistent.

I don't think it's at all coincidental that at the same time academic prose turned into hopelessly turgid BS; or that professors lost their respect and pleasure in teaching when they began teaching kids who had done K-12after the Sixties "revolutionized" the classroom. A lot of cooks had a hand in this broth.

I think it says something about higher ed when businesess value industrial certifications more than the degrees higher ed confers.

EXACTLY

Tenure doesn't protect rights, it protects lefts.

I predict we'll hit a tipping point in academe. Just as the Sixties revolution swept away (for better or worse) the Fifties establishment, these jokers are being challenged by a new generation that sees them for the petty fascists they are. There's going to be a revolution, but not the kind they're hoping for. Thanks for the links, btw

Iblis writes: I think it says something about higher ed when businesess value industrial certifications more than the degrees higher ed confers.

For technicians and drones that is true. Better to hire someone who has a cert in medical machine repair than a person with a BA in European Art history to be the in-house repair & PM person on a string of medical clinics. Better to hire a person who has been to McDonald's fast food school and got a cert for a slot at Burger King than some woman with an associates in biology.

You do have to watch the industrial certs for ex-cons....since certs are quick, fairly cheap, and can be done in many cases behind bars...Not that ex-cons are unemployable....but a cert with several months or years of a job gap on the resume` may be a red flag that the applicant has been on a recent "excellent adventure" he doesn't want discovered.

For professions, for most high-paying jobs, there is no substitute for a good degree, meaning a useful degree, and a dgree from a good place is worth more than say, Ward Churchill's alma mater degrees. (With the exception of Ward, 'natch)

Craig Harmon is correct -- and it's more than just a quibble. Mitchell was never tenured, and in fact was never on a tenure track by his own choosing.

And bringing his complaint to the public is a smart move and one that will save his job.

Listen: I've taught in a university and am quite aware of (and dismayed by) the way conservatives are treated. But as I've pointed out before, the left's control over the academy is a relative blip on the continuum. And I'd hate to see the baby thrown out with the bathwater, because the tenure system ultimately protects the speech of everyone.

Per Mitchell's interview on O'Reilly, he didn't want to be tenured so that he could remain a teaching professor.

I'm sure that tenure brings a few responsibilities that take away from actual teaching. Such things like research and publishing, that a few professors use and abuse in methods exhibited by Churchill.

Jeff G,

I must disagree in part.

Free markets are generally the best way to distribute goods and services. (neglecting market failures) Wouldn't it be a good idea to have some colleges without tenure and some with so that we could compare the outcomes of one method over another instead of accepting professors self-interested claims that tenure is necessary? Wouldn't the marketplace of ideas be better served by a marketplace for professors?

As to market failures, do we know for certain that they exist w/rt college professors? Do we know tenure is the best answer to the market failure if it exists? How do we know given that tenure has existed for so long that we cannot study the alternative?

I've never seen an argument that defended these and other issues. But I'd like to see the evidence if it exists.

In most cases, I'm a ardent proponent of the market system. But I do believe in academic exceptionalism, if only because I distrust populist movements when it comes to regulating free speech.

That being said, I'm all for free markets challenging the traditional university's monopoly on higher education (as I've mentioned in other threads here). That way, universities would be impelled by market forces to be less insular in their hiring and promoting practices. That way you get the protections of the tenure system w/ the benefits of the free market.

He was on O'reilly last nite and he said they were going to extend his contract for another year. Have the circumstances changed? Is he fired as of today or what? O'reilly said he would go to bat for him if they fired him......if, in fact, they DO fire him, the universtiy would get so much heat they wouldn't know what to do. I can't imagine that they would fire him with so many people watching them.
rich glasgow

CALLING ALL BLOGGERS: This is the future unless we stop sitting around whining about it do something about it! Below is the email address of the UC Financial Foundation, the foundation that receives their outside contributions, and the email addresses of the UC Board of Regents who are currently considering firing Churchill. Email them and help them make up their minds.

As the real Churchill used to say: action this day!

RE: UC FINANCIALS - FINANCIL FOUNDATION can be emailed
http://www.colorado.edu/cufoundation/aboutus/financials.html

UC BOARD OF REGENTS
Dr. Peter Steinhauer (D.D.S.) 7492 Spring Drive Boulder, CO 80303 303-499-1278 (fax 303-543-2351) e-mail Peter.Steinhauer@colorado.edu

Ms. Cindy Carlisle 411 Spruce Street Boulder, CO 80302 303-444-2606 (fax 303-444-0057) e-mail Regent.Carlisle@colorado.edu

Ms. Patricia Hayes 12575 East Bates Circle Aurora, CO 80014 303-369-0054 (fax 303-740-8409) e-mail Regent.Hayes@colorado.edu

Mr. Michael Carrigan 555 Seventeenth Street, Suite 3200 Denver, CO 80202 (303)-295-8314 (fax 303-975-5489) e-mail Carrigan@colorado.edu

Mr. Tom Lucero P.O. Box 921 Johnstown, CO 80534 970-978-1142 (fax 970-587-0920) e-mail Tommyjclay@aol.com * Please send communications as an attachment to his email when possible

Mr. Steve Bosley P.O. Box 270509 Louisville, CO 80027 303-604-2313 (fax 303-604-2313) e-mail Regent.Bosley@colorado.edu

Mr. Jerry G. Rutledge , Chair 2745 Springmede Court Colorado Springs, CO 80906-3716 719-527-8868 (fax 719-632-7694) e-mail Jerryrutledge@adelphia.net

Find these hypocritical events one-at-a-time is all well and good, but someone should start archiving them, time, place, date, download the story, etc. Here are some ideas:

NoFreeSpeechForYou.com (Soup Nazi)
UpsideDownMedia.com (Like a Tilt-O-Whirl!)
NotWhatIDoButWhatISay.com (Parenting axiom)

I'm sure some bright bulb can come up with a proper title.