The...incident involves J. Angelo Corlett, a tenured philosophy professor who last week was relieved of his duties teaching two courses, one on critical thinking, the other on race and racism.
Corlett told the San Diego Union-Tribune he used an informational slide in both classes that listed 10 to 12 epithets that have been used against Black, Hispanic, Latino, Asian and white people.
"You have to mention the words in order to explain why they are racist and should not be used," said Corlett, a 63 year-old Latino. "Some students are confused about what counts as racism. And some are more concerned about being offended than learning about the logic and science of language...."
"We have had a number of students who have come forward and who've complained about their experience in professor Corlett's classes," said Luke Wood, SDSU's vice president for student affairs and campus diversity.
"This has happened this semester but has also been a routine experience. ... We took that into account," said Wood. "This is really a case of a faculty member who is being reassigned. This is not about free expression or academic freedom, but about teaching assignments."
The only person who should be removed from their position is Vice President Wood, who is apparently utterly ignorant about the academic freedom rights of faculty members: these include the freedom to make decisions about how to teach the material. Since Professor Corlett is, in fact, widely published on issues in applied ethics (including on racism and hate speech), removing him from his teaching in this area without any due process is a direct violation of his academic freedom rights. The description of his teaching method, in this instance, makes clear that it easily meets professional standards, so what has happened here is spineless administrators have caved in to students trying to flex their muscles at the expense of core academic rights of a faculty member. What a disgrace!
(Thanks to David Zimmerman for the pointer.)
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