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For about two months after the adoption of the Policy on Discrimination
and Discriminatory Harassment things were fairly quiet. On a day to day
basis, not many people were affected by the rules.
Controversy broke out anew over the ideas of professor Michael Devin.
Devin had been a tenured professor of sociology for over 16 years. His
credentials were good - undergrad at Harvard, grad school at Stanford -
and he had several solid publications under his belt. He also held
controversial views on a number of highly political issues. Devin he took
strong positions on feminism, homosexuality, and race. In particular, he
said and wrote that blacks as a group were intellectually inferior to
whites.
There were protests inside and outside of Devin's classes. President
Dowell was quick to take note of a potential problem and created a faculty
committee to "review the question of when speech both in and outside the
classroom may go beyond the protection of academic freedom or become
conduct unbecoming a member of the faculty, or some other form of
misconduct." He was also quoted saying that Devin's views are "offensive
to the basic values of human equality and decency and simply have no place
here at Midwest University." The phrase "conduct unbecoming" a member of
the faculty reflects language in the faculty contract warranting
discipline. Dowell's actions were widely interpreted as a move toward
revoking Devin's tenure and removing him from his position. The university
also established supplemental class sections for students wishing to avoid
Devin.
In his Winter term class on social problems Devin had 19 students, three
of which were black. As one of several readings, he assigned portions of The
Bell Curve by Charles Murray and Richard. J. Herrnstein. Using data
in The Bell Curve, Devin argued that there was a difference
between the distribution of intelligence among blacks, whites, and certain
Asian and Jewish groups. Many of the white students regarded Devin as
idiosyncratic and a bit of a curiosity on this point. It was not clear how
many took him seriously. Two of the black students were deeply offended by
his claims and far less forgiving.
CAROC argued that Devin's professional competence was questionable and that his views on the intellectual capacities of blacks undermined the learning environment in his classes. The BSA stated bluntly that an avowed racist should not be working at a state funded university.
Reference: Devin's case is loosely based on the case of professor Michael Levin at the City College of the City University of New York.