I would like to apologize for my earlier letter to The Exponent, calling for Dr. Bert Chapman’s dismissal from the University. Lydia Williams and Yvonne Pitt are correct in their defense of Chapman’s right to speech, and I admit that I was writing in anger when I sent my first letter.

It would be wrong to fire a man for his beliefs, regardless of how hateful, disgusting or, frankly, evil they may be. I hope that somehow this experience has at least led Dr. Chapman to re-evaluate the way he thinks about some of his fellow citizens, and take the time to learn the facts about AIDS and prison rape, not to mention homosexuality in general. He really doesn’t seem to understand that “gay” is something you are, not something you do.

Even so, I’m sure he is a fine librarian, and, in addressing Dr. Chapman directly, I will end this letter the way so many members of the Religious Right have ended their letters to liberals: I will pray for you.

Does he not know the power of the pink dollar?

Problem is the transitory nature of students, the apathetic and distant uninvolved parents and naive/immature not street wise or politically saavy students put up with idiots like this. And even when a light bulb goes off in the most uninformed they say oh it’s only one semester. Apathy.

I can’t even address the level of homophobia it’s just so horrifying.

NOTE: This radical mind f*ck of students is going on in every classroom in America in every academic area. Maybe math is a little safe. Meanwhile, parents have no clue and hand over their precious child’s mind to assholes. Apathy, as in all of society.

PLEASE gay parents, siblings, cousins and friends stop the atrocity of today’s biased education. The student has the right to hear the entire fleshed out subject matter. BOTH SIDES of every topic and learn to THINK not just switch on MSNBC or FOX and repeat bumperstickers.

At MIT I was taught you can learn to LEARN or you can learn to PASS TESTS (and this was in a course of science/mathmatics).

And wtf is up with discussing ONE small component of “heathcare” and the school lets that go on as if it makes any sense at all.

Librarians ARE considered faculty rather than staff, and hold both academic rank and (once granted) tenure.

And who’s paying for the endless wars of choice around the world?

And whos’ paying for the endless bail outs for the banksters on Wall St?

And who’s paying for us not having a national health program like every other industrialized and civilized country in the world?

LOL

Cheers, Joe Mustich, Justice of the Peace,
Washington, Connecticut, USA

And congrats to CT for their one year anniversay of marriage equality!

and, http://www.purdue.edu/Purdue/a.....hools.html

Just attempting to give you the facts of how review committees on university campuses work. I’m not sure why that’s so offensive to you, but they are just the facts. Knowledge is power, dear boy.

The way to go after pigs like Chapman is to Bork them, to give them the same treatment we gave Prejean. Put them in a pressure cooker and turn up the heat.

Actually, they do exist in a vacuum. That’s why you have to work to make sure you penetrate that vacuum by getting these protests into his file. The review committee will look at his file, and only his file, and not look outward for newspaper clippings or youtube videos of protests. Focus on getting those things into that file of his if you hope to have an impact with a review committee. The process of getting a letter into someone’s file should be available in some document on your campus. I’d encourage you to look into how that’s done at Purdue.

I’m not saying your protests couldn’t create pressure on the university administration as a whole. Universities, like most organizations, are very concerned with image and things that negatively impact their image.

But, review committees operate under strict guidelines of what they are allowed to review and it’s typically just the faculty dossier and only the dossier.

We, and not the standards of academic politesse, will decide the focus of our campaign. Devolved creatures like Chapman should be boycotted, ostracized, ridiculed and have thier fitness to teach persistently questioned. And yes, by all means write letters but remember that the main reason he’s unfit is because he’s an immoral, dishonest bigot, a man consumed by hatred based on his beliefs in a superstitious cult. He’s as warped and twisted as any brown robed Dominican Inquisitor ever was.

As for a picture, the local city newspaper posted one (Journal and Courier), but it is not available on their site.

I would also like to note that Purdue University is behind all of the other Big Ten Universities when it comes to LGBTQ issues. Currently, our two main focuses are getting a paid staff member to focus on LGBTQ issues, and getting Gender Identity and Expression added to the nondiscrimination policy. You can view the white paper of the LGBTQ Advisory Board here https://engineering.purdue.edu/NOGLSTP/Documents/Purdue_Provosts_LGBTQ_Advisory_Board_White_Paper.pdf

None of those options have any influence on a tenured professor’s review committee. Getting students and/or colleagues to write letters to be placed in his “retention/tenure/promotion” dossier, perhaps, could hurt him professionally. But, tenured professors really have to demonstrate serious academic failures such as lying about sources/research, plagiarism, etc. in order to be let go.

http://www.lib.purdue.edu/hsse.....apman.html

What’s worse perhaps: The ‘academic freedom’ excuse his Purdue colleagues have espoused is, at the very least, dishonest.

Such blanket statements have no basis in fact because some states have free speech laws that provide more protection than that provided by the U.S. Constitution. Purdue could be in a lot of trouble if this guy was fired for his views if Indiana free-speech rights are comparable those enjoyed in California.

I’ll refer interested readers to http://shawvalenza.com/publications.php?id=78 and two specific quotes from that article:

“California includes in its Constitution a right to free speech that is broader than the First Amendment.”

“The law also protects employees’ speech outside the workplace to some extent, even from private employers’ actions. For example, the law prohibits employers from taking action against an employee for lawful, off premises activity, at least with respect to matters addressed under the Labor Code. The law also prohibits discrimination against employees based on their political activity. Therefore, for instance, if an employee volunteers time for a political candidate whom the employer does not support, the employer may not sanction the employee for doing so.”

This of course also makes it illegal for a homophobic employer to prevent employees from donating their time to a campaign to repeal Proposition Eight as long as they don’t use company resources or time.

The real reason for removing him is because he’s a joke who’s obviously unqualified to teach. It he has tenure then the way to get rid of him is via boycott, ostracizing him, ridiculing him, and questioning his credentials.

It’s important to convince bigots that there’s a price to pay for being a pig.

So (a) he is expressing his personal opinion, (b) is doing that with no indication of any affiliation with a university, and (c) is claiming no particular expertise. It’s basically a “letter to the editor”. While we may not like what he says, there could be legal issues if Purdue fired him for it – some states have laws prohibiting employers from retaliating against employees for expressing a political (or religious) opinion on their own time.

And the way to reduce both his student base and chances for research funding is by calling for his dismissal and making enough of a stink about it that he becomes an even greater liability to the school – a school that is able to charge premium rates based on their reputation.

The great thing about “intellectual freedom” is that it is usually accompanied by “intellectual responsibility”. It’s time this Library Sciences professor found out about this concept.

If a student does not want to study under a particular professor, he/she may choose not to sign up for those courses. A grad student may select a different professor to be his/her adviser. And in the extreme, any student may choose not to attend that school.

There is no cause to fire the guy, or to demote him, or even to reprimand him. The school has no recourse. The only serious issue might be if his courses don’t attract enough students, so that they get canceled, or if his research doesn’t get grant funding. (Most schools require every professor, even tenured, to attract a certain amount of funding, either by teaching a certain number of courses/students, or by getting grants, or some combination.)

Nope. He has that right under the First Amendment. Period. I firmly believe that folks like Chapman and the Fred Phelps types in the world demonstrate the hate in their message in a way that helps us.

>I also notice that you accept the fallacy that we should let twisted nutjobs like this run free because it lets people see that their views are unacceptable.

It isn’t a fallacy. I believe strongly that ultimately, the better argument always wins out. I am absolutely unwilling to give up the ability to argue back with a better argument under the guise of helping those too stupid to get the real truth. There was a time not so long ago when we were considered the nutjobs pushing a crazy argument that we were normal. Where would we be now had we been forced to stop talking about ourselves and our cause?

Imagine all the money on schools, buses, social services, etc., we could save if people didn’t have so many freaking kids.

As a trans man with no interest in raising children, I find it abhorrent that my tax dollars go to help raise and educate other people’s kids. They should pay for that shit themselves, or be responsible enough to have protected sex so as not to bring the burden of children on themselves and society.

You really are a simpleton, aren’t you? How does life feel when everything is just a series of “yes/no” questions? Do they even make velcro laces for adults anymore or do you just walk around in slippers?

Yes, you can kick him out for expressing his views, if in doing so he expressed a view that some of his students are sub-human (which he did).

I also notice that you accept the fallacy that we should let twisted nutjobs like this run free because it lets people see that their views are unacceptable. The problem with this is that those who are smart enough not to fall for this kind of propaganda are already disinclined to listen to him, but those stupid enough to fall for it have a ‘distinguished professor’ to look up to. We’ve seen the same thing happen repeatedly when Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity brings in “an expert” to back up their lies and distortions. Why give them one more?

Leaving this homophobe in a position that allows him to influence young minds is not a “win for us”.

Nope.

He didn’t concern himself with the hurt he directed towards gays. Both institutions of higher learning and corporate entities are ever more concerned with their brand image and they are finding out that these miserable assholes are bad for the brand and bad for business.

Oh, and fuck Purdue too…Go IU!!

http://bertchapman.blogtownhal.....lity.thtml

And actually, what an excellent conversation starter this has been on a campus in the heart of the Midwest. For folks to react so strongly in the negative to the blatant homophobia and intellectual dishonesty and overall weak case made by Chapman is a win for us.

But to get to the gist of this matter, as has been said repeatedly, freedom of speech does not preclude one from freedom of responsibility. If this guy was working the line at some factory it wouldn’t matter what he believed, but instead he is a professor at a university and is disseminating views that dehumanize some of his students. These students have a right (yes, a right) to expect that the people who teach them, believe they are worthy of being taught. Leaving this person in his position would be no different than having a pro-slavery advocate teaching social studies or a hiring a holocaust denier as a history professor. It would be an act of violence against African-Americans and Jews, just as the continued employment of this professor is an act of violence against the GLBT community at Perdue.