Complicated questions for a post-tenure era

by HCE, Wednesday, November 08, 2017, 17:55 (3065 days ago) @ Greg

In the old days, that was tenure's function, to protect the controversial research and writings of quality scholars. (Not that this guy had tenure or that his white supremacist bullshit is remotely scholarly, but we can set that aside for the broader issue.) Now that tenure-track positions are vanishing, and tenure itself amounts to precious little, questions like yours have new urgency. My response:

Private schools can and do restrict expression and lifestyle choices all the time. Baylor, for example, requires its faculty to be active members in a Christian church, and a required part of its faculty application process is a written statement of faith. BYU requires its faculty to adhere to its Honor Code, which forbids alcohol, tobacco, and facial hair, among other things.

Should they? I usually don't think so, but that's probably a matter for the college community to decide. I think Liberty is a phony college because their science department teaches Creationism. If they're comfortable with that, and they are, then that's their business. They've chosen to define themselves as an anti-science school, so that's their choice. If ND did the same, however, I would be furious. I don't want ND to be like Liberty, or Baylor, or BYU.

I would want ND to fire a Nazi on the grounds that ND shouldn't accept white supremacy as a valid ideology. If ND found a white supremacist on its faculty or staff, I would expect them to terminate the contract immediately. If they didn't, I would be furious. I would expect the same from my institution if one of my colleagues turned out to be a white supremacist. And while I understand the broader questions about thought and liberty, white supremacy is fundamentally incompatible with the values of any school worth calling a school.

It's also probably worth noting that nothing posted on the internet is private, even if it's posted under an alias.