Catholic College in Mass. Fires Professor Over Class Discussion of Va. Tech Shootings
04-23-2007 8:28 AM
BOSTON (Associated Press) -- An adjunct professor was fired after leading a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings in which he pointed a marker at some students and said "pow."
The five-minute demonstration at Emmanuel College on Wednesday, two days after a student killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, included a discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the public's "celebration of victimhood," said the professor, Nicholas Winset.
During the demonstration, Winset pretended to shoot some students. Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that the gunman might have been stopped had another student or faculty member been armed.
"A classroom is supposed to be a place for academic exploration," Winset, who taught financial accounting, told the Boston Herald.
He said administrators had asked the faculty to engage students on the issue. But on Friday, he got a letter saying he was fired and ordering him to stay off campus.
Winset, 37, argued that the Catholic liberal arts school was stifling free discussion by firing him, and he said the move would have a "chilling effect" on open debate. He posted an 18-minute video on the online site YouTube defending his action.
The college issued a statement saying: "Emmanuel College has clear standards of classroom and campus conduct, and does not in any way condone the use of discriminatory or obscene language."
Student Junny Lee, 19, told The Boston Globe that most students didn't appear to find Winset's demonstration offensive.
If ideas and theories can't be discussed in a place of learning to further one's thought processes and reasoning abilities then we as a nation are doomed.
It's stupidity like this that makes me hang my head in shame.
The college issued a statement saying: "Emmanuel College has clear standards of classroom and campus conduct, and does not in any way condone the use of discriminatory or obscene language."
Shades of the Scopes "monkey" trial. Though, this is a matter of life and death.
Of course, I wasn't in that classroom as this discussion was being held, but he should be commended for being able to discriminate between tactics that have a chance of succeeding and the silly, head-in-sand tactics that do nothing to protect anyone. Kudos to him for that, despite more sand being piled up at that school in the wake of his firing. Sad.
There's no guarantee of freedom of speech within a private institution. This however, indicates just how far this school's administration will go to stifle viewpoints which may be in opposition to its own doctrine. Doesn't teach much respect for open discourse.
The college issued a statement saying: "Emmanuel College has clear standards of classroom and campus conduct, and does not in any way condone the use of discriminatory or obscene language."
Student Junny Lee, 19, told The Boston Globe that most students didn't appear to find Winset's demonstration offensive.
Exactly. I'm wondering if this professor might have a legal case against the college. If he had been telling the students that there was no way allowing CCW in VT would have stopped the shooter, then he probably would have been just fine.
Private institutions often exist to promote the agenda of the organization that establishes them. I doubt that you could explore many "liberal" ideas at Bob Jones University, for example.
that's a sad story. Just shows what happens when a prof tries to engage his class without pushing the "approved" agenda. I wonder if his play-acting had anything to do with it?
I'm glad I studied engineering, and didn't have to deal with crap like this. 2 polysci classes that focused on history, not current events were plenty for me.
Hmm, rodc13, I usually agree with your opinions and observations - though maybe it's just an Airborne thing :banana: - but I must respectfully disagree here. Based on my readings and experience, I would say that the overwhelming majority of colleges and universities, and their faculties, are decidedly left leaning. Thus, in response to the VT shootings (abetted by their "gun-free" policies), Yale bans toy guns from the drama department and this professor is summarily fired for espousing anything other than a purely leftist view of the incident.
If you have evidence that conservative ideals are espoused by a majority (or even a significant minority) of US colleges, then I would be most interested to see it. It may be that I have been wrong all this time…
Man, on my final we had to attack or defend the decision to use atomic weapons in an essay that counted for 25% of the grade. The prof expected you to use as many arguments as possibly, cover possible outcomes had we not used them, and suggest alternatives. It was a beast!
Also - did you go to ERAU in Daytona? I grew up just south of there, and had a friend go through in 89-93...
They just ran this guys story on CNN including an interview of the professor and students wh were in his class.
The reasons for him being fired was not toward what folks here think.
It was because during his class when a student asked to talk abotu the VT event he replied with "So what?!". He went on to say that many more American people did and will die in Iraq/Afghanistan or of HIV/AIDS and that in comparison the VT event is a minor item.
After stating this he went on to do his pretend shooting of students thing with his marker.
The school took issue with his ststemants reducing the VT event to be a minor non issue by comparison to what he deemed to be more important issues suchas Iraq and the genocide in Darfur.
For a non tenured professor he very much should've known better.
That still seems like a stupid reason to fire a teacher. I'm thinking they probably wanted to get rid of this guy for quite some time, and this was a good excuse.
Actually, I went to Virginia Tech. Never had any classes in Norris, though.
This seems like a good case for public universities, rather than private ones. A private university is just like a private company. They can fire you for any reason they want. If you don't like it, don't work there.
Also, I've never heard of any Catholic university (or any other religious one) having a good engineering program. It seems like they just do waste-of-time stuff like law, poli-sci, and general liberal arts junk.
Also, I've never heard of any Catholic university (or any other religious one) having a good engineering program. It seems like they just do waste-of-time stuff like law, poli-sci, and general liberal arts junk.
Folks who have no respect for the 2nd Amendment probably don't think the other Amendments mean too much either.
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