Churchill -- When Will I Make an End?

Mike Rosen, a Colorado talk show host, tackles the question of Professor Churchill's first amendment rights in today's Rocky Mountain News. He points out that this is not a criminal matter, but an employment issue and argues that Professor Churchill's employer should have a right to fire him for his statements. He then goes on to add an interesting perspective that I haven't seen before [this is where those damn speech codes bite]. He writes:

On my radio show Monday, Churchill conceded that students and faculty should be held to the same standard regarding penalties for reprehensible expression. Students have been suspended or expelled for statements far less offensive than Churchill's. Where's their First Amendment protection?

This is a fascinating argument. If freedom of speech is fundamental, then how can there be different standards for students and professors? For some time now schools have been punishing students for inappropriate and offensive speech. Rosen also points out that there are certain categories of speech, offensive to women and minorities, that if uttered would result in a faculty member being dismissed. So a professor's freedom of speech is not absolute. Why, he asks, should faculty be liable to punishment for one category of offensive speech and not for another? Maybe the tenure issue will prove to be more important than I previously thought.

Rosen then fulfills my earlier prediction by issuing a call for eliminating not only Professor Churchill, but the ethnic studies department and major. He writes:

There's nothing in [an ethnic studies curriculum] that can't be adequately covered in history, sociology, anthropology and other legitimate disciplines. What do you do with an ethnic studies major, anyway, other than repeat the cycle and teach ethnic studies, fomenting anger and resentment within the next generation of college students? It's a breeding ground for divisiveness, separatism and irredentist fantasies to settle past scores.

Read the full article here.

Matters are moving quickly here. The Churchill affair is assuming major proportions. It seems to have crystalized a whole range of apprehensions and resentments not just in the public, but also in academia. These are interesting times -- a great time to be an historian. What month is this now, Thermidor?

UPDATE:

In a related matter, Marty Peretz over at TNR sympathizes with Larry Summers, saying that "he imperils the unexamined orthodoxies of the ensconced [I like that phrase]." Read it here.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE:

Roger Kimball over at The New Criterion, has a long piece on the Churchill affair in which he argues that two overriding issues are at stake above and beyond Churchill himself. They are freedom of speech [along with its lesser manifestation, academic freedom] and the politicization of the university system. He also quotes extensively from an article by Edward Shils on academic freedom. Check it out here.

AND YET ANOTHER:

Check out Iowahawk's take on the Churchill affair. It's hilarious. When you are done, check out his archives. There's some sharp satire there. Warning: Iowahawk is a blog done for the amusement of other bloggers, and some of the satire is pretty obscure for those who don't keep up with the latest internet buzz.

OH GOD!

Joe Boy Scarborough has Ann Coulter on his show commenting on Churchill. He says that what Professors say in class is "subsidized speech" not free speech. Coulter says that none of the offending professors are radicals because they are protected by tenure, and continues that they're probably just trying to get laid by women with long hair in their armpits who probably don't like men anyway. A Professor Levinson from Fordham rebuts that tenured professors do get fired, usually [he admits] for not attracting enough FTE's. Unfortunately, on many campuses that's the name of the game -- how many butts do you put in the seats. The Fordham guy denies that there is a left bias among University instructors. Oh Really? He just blew his credibility right there. I can't take any more.