Stupid professor tricks...

...followed by "even stupider college administrator tricks"...

I'm sure by now that many of you have read the AZ Rep article detailing the situation of a Glendale Community College mathematics professor whose job is in jeopardy because of a history of sending personal emails on the college's system, in violation of the College's email policy.

A little harsh perhaps, but not really newsworthy, until you read the part about the emails in question containing links to white supremacist sites and anti-Mexican screeds.

Now, it's a possible First Amendment issue.

An overview, from the article -

A Maricopa Community Colleges professor could be fired after he sent an e-mail to district employees that contained a link to Pat Buchanan's Web site and a transcript of a George Washington Thanksgiving proclamation.

{snip}

In 2003, he e-mailed employees several Internet links that contained statements about Hispanics. Titles on the Web sites included, "Mexicans Think U.S. Belongs to Them!" and "Mexican Double Standard."

The professor, Walter Kehowski, sounds likes a bigoted schmuck; hell, he's probably offended at being described with a word derived from Yiddish slang.

So what?

Unless his social attitudes affect how he treats students, and such bias can be documented, or his emails were targeted to harass specific coworkers, the content of his emails should have absolutely no impact on his employment.

Freedom of speech is an ideal that doesn't only apply to pleasant or agreeable speech, especially in an academic environment. There are enough efforts by Republicans to restrict what can be said in a classroom to fight off without having to battle academics who are trying to do the same thing.

If he does get fired (it won't be decided until next month), the lawsuits will be as spectacular as they are inevitable. After years of posturing, maneuvering and appeals, the College will lose the lawsuits. Unless, of course, they can show that they've disciplined everyone who has sent a personal email on their system.

Best guess - they haven't; no organization ever does.

If every employee who ever sent a personal email on an employer's system were fired, the U.S. unemployment rate would be somewhere over 95%.

At worst, the college adminstration should revoke his college email account or restrict it so that it can only receive messages, not send or forward them.

Eli Blake at Deep Thought has an insightful take on this issue; he's actually a professor and brings an insider's perspective to the 'academic freedom' implications. Check it out.

Later!