Sticks and Stones (Fred Speaking)
				Source		MAIN PATH: John
			John				Dee

I feel sorry for Devin's black students. If I were black and I had to take the class to major in sociology, I'd go in and argue what I believe. Fight fire with fire. I think he's mistaken about race. Don't think for a minute that all conservatives believe that blacks are less intelligent than whites. That's not true. But as far as tenure goes, I don't think it should be revoked. Here's why:

• I can understand why some of his students are offended by what he's saying, but I think he has a right to say it. Both his contract and the university policy of academic freedom for professors allow him that right.
  

• Furthermore, there is a good reason why both his contract and policy provide give him the right to say what he wishes. For the university to achieve its educational and research goals, professors must be free to reach their own conclusions and then say and publish what they believe. We would have no university at all if the administration could revoke tenure because it didn't like what a professor said or wrote.
  

• I don't know whether the new code forbids him to say what he's saying. If it does, that's just one more problem with the code. I have always thought that the code is bad policy because it's too broad and puts the university on a slippery slope that will result in more and more politically sensitive speech being banned. Now we can see that the code may also be on a collision course with the policy on academic freedom. If it is, it is inconsistent with one of the major goals of the university and should be rescinded.

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