University suspends professor who sent insulting message to Air Force Academy cadet

AP, Nov. 18, 2002

Authorities at St. Xavier University have suspended a tenured professor who sent an e-mail message to an Air Force Academy cadet calling the cadet a "disgrace to this country."

St. Xavier president Richard A. Yanikoski said late Sunday that Peter Kirstein, who has taught history and political science there for 28 years, would be suspended from teaching for the rest of the semester. Yanikoski also said the university would be reviewing Kirstein's academic and teaching record.

Both Kirstein and the university issued public apologies last week for the blistering e-mail message that said U.S. military personnel were partly to blame for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But Yanikoski said late Sunday that further disciplinary action against Kirstein appeared both appropriate and necessary.

"He seemed quite literally to go off the deep end," Yanikoski said. "It is regrettable he said what he did."

Kirstein, an avowed pacifist, had been responding to an e-mail from Air Force cadet Robert Kurpiel asking for help to promote an academic forum at the academy.

Kirstein's reply read, in part, "I am furious you would even think I would support you and your aggressive baby killing tactics of collateral damage."

The e-mail also compared Kurpiel to the snipers who terrorized the Washington area, and said that if had a sense of honor he should resign from the military.

Yanikoski said Kirstein's e-mail was not protected by academic freedom.

Kurpiel had asked help promoting the Academic Assembly in February on "America's Challenges in an Unstable World: Balancing Security with Liberty."