In an article in National Catholic Reporter on academic freedom, journalist Menachem Wecker tells us,
Contrary to popular belief, academic freedom isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. Instead, it guarantees that professors can only be dismissed for cause, ascertained by a hearing of their peers.
Okay, but in these times, “cause” doesn’t mean very much, does it? Sure enough,
So if a biology professor “goes off the deep end” and tells students there’s no such thing as evolution, or genes don’t exist, that professor will go before a committee, which could decide that behavior is unprofessional, Reichman said. But if a biologist goes in a new research direction that threatens “some of the old truisms of the field,” that professor must be protected.
Have profs been going off the deep end and telling students that?
As opposed to this: The only human being in recent decades who actually discovered a whole new kingdom of life (the Archaea), Carl Woese, was skating on the edge because he did not worship at Darwin’s shrine.
He died hoping to bring the swine down.
But any tenured mediocrity or “aren’t I good?” girl is okay.
Trust me, it is hard to find a Darwin thesis too stupid for publication these days.
From Wecker, we also learn,
“The greatest discoveries in almost every field of knowledge,” Reichman said, “come from people who take risks and are sometimes viewed as troublemakers or pariahs.”
Yeh. That’s called having a mind instead of a BEhind, in a chair. It’s deeply unpopular now.
Over at Evolution News & Views, David Klinghoffer comments that students may need an online bunker to talk openly now.
It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that for professors with controversial thoughts on evolution, it’s indeed Warsaw 1983. I am waiting for journalists to pick up on and report that.
Klinghoffer, you’re my editor somewhere, and I love ya. But look: The legacy media today are just so Warsaw 1982.
They can’t afford to notice the seething mass of biologists with better ideas than the tenured hacks of the Darwin lobby. Not when there is still a Darwin soviet puny enough for them to surrender to.
Seriously, as we all know of course, academic freedom—like any other freedom—is not given, it is assumed. Along with all the risks, rewards, and fun.
See also: Yes, academic freedom is indeed under threat
Follow UD News at Twitter!