05/08/2007
This press release from the Foundation For Individual Rights in Education is about a professor who is being persecuted for emailing George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation. However, it’s not that the proclamation mentioned God, although George Washington would be in a lot of trouble if he tried to make that proclamation today. No, it’s the fact that it was posted on Pat Buchanan’s website, and they felt that anything posted on Buchanan’s website must be harassment.
I’m mentioning this because there was an earlier kerfuffle three years ago, when Professor Walter Kehowski got in trouble for emailing people articles from Vdare.com. I did a column about it at the time. [ Angst in Arizona– Caused By VDARE.com?June 16, 2004] Please note that this does not mean Walter Kehowski has reoffended. It’s the Maricopa County Community College that has reoffended. Eugene Volokh had an interesting counterfactual in 2004, asking in effect, why, if professors can’t be disciplined for anti-American speech, they can be disciplined for anti-Mexican speech … by an American college.
UPDATE:
You can contact the administration here:
Rufus Glasper, Chancellor, Maricopa County Community College District: 480-731-8100; Velvie Green, President, Glendale Community College: 623-845-3012;
Professor on Brink of Being Fired for E-Mailing George Washington’s Thanksgiving Address
May 7, 2007
FIRE Press Release
GLENDALE, Ariz., May 7, 2007 — The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) has placed a professor on forced administrative leave and has recommended that he be terminated for e-mailing a Thanksgiving message to his colleagues last November. On the day before Thanksgiving, Professor Walter Kehowski sent out the text of George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789” and a link to the webpage where he’d found it — on Pat Buchanan’s web log. After several recipients complained of being offended by the e-mail, MCCCD found Kehowski guilty of violating the district’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy and technology usage standards. Kehowski then contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.
“It simply boggles the mind that a professor could find himself facing termination simply for e-mailing the Thanksgiving address of our first president,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “This situation is an embarrassment to MCCCD and would be laughable if a professor’s most basic rights and very livelihood weren’t on the line.”
On November 22, 2006, tenured mathematics professor Walter Kehowski at Glendale Community College — part of the MCCCD system — sent an e-mail containing Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789” to all MCCCD employees using a district-wide listserv designated for “announcements.” Within weeks, five MCCCD employees filed harassment charges against Kehowski, claiming his message was “hostile” and “derogatory” because it contained a link to Buchanan’s website, where the conservative Buchanan had also posted his criticisms of immigration policies.
MCCCD’s Initial Assessment found on January 3, 2007 that Kehowski was guilty of violating MCCCD’s EEO policy and policies limiting e-mail usage to messages that “support education, research, scholarly communication, administration, and other MCCCD business.” These policies also prohibit “[m]ailings to large numbers of people that contain unwanted solicitations or information.” However, MCCCD employees commonly use the “announcements” listserv to send out unsolicited information. Recent e-mails sent over this very listserv include an advertisement for purchasing goats for orphans in Uganda, quotes about Women’s History Month, and a reminder about the health benefits of eating bananas. To FIRE’s knowledge, not one of the senders of these e-mails has been forced to cease teaching or threatened with dismissal.
On March 9, MCCCD Chancellor Rufus Glasper placed Kehowski on administrative leave and recommended to the MCCCD Governing Board that he be dismissed. Kehowski has since appealed that decision and will defend himself at a hearing before a panel of three faculty members on June 5. That panel will then make recommendations for Chancellor Glasper to present before the Governing Board.
FIRE wrote to Chancellor Glasper on April 25 to protest the actions against Kehowski, stressing that e-mailing a proclamation from George Washington or including a link to Pat Buchanan’s website does not constitute punishable harassment. FIRE reminded Glasper that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that for workplace expression to be considered “harassment,” it must be “severe or pervasive enough to create an objectively hostile or abusive work environment.” Sending a link to a website, which readers can either visit or simply ignore, does not fit this exacting standard. FIRE further wrote that even if the Thanksgiving e-mail was unsolicited, numerous other employees had sent unsolicited, non-work-related announcements over the same listserv. Chancellor Glasper responded with a letter on April 30, but failed to address any of FIRE’s concerns.
“It is dark day for free speech and common sense in Arizona. If the MCCCD believes at all in the importance of the right to free expression, or even just in basic fairness, it will undo its illiberal actions and exonerate Professor Kehowski immediately,” Lukianoff said.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.