To the editor:
Last week’s suspension of
Professor Peter Kirstein by President Richard Yanikoski presents a serious
threat to academic freedom and the credibility of Saint Xavier University as an
institution of higher learning. To put it in the simplest terms, a tenured
professor was suspended (and probably will be fired) for responding rudely to an
unsolicited email and expressing his view that killing is wrong. Nothing is more
alien to the idea of academic freedom than this.
I have created a page on my
academic freedom website, www.collegefreedom.org/kirstein.htm,
to document this case and the danger it poses to academic freedom.
To make matters worse, President Yanikoski claims to be following the academic freedom standards of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and even will require Kirstein to sign a statement pledging to follow them before he can be reinstated. President Yanikoski fails to understand the basic meaning of academic freedom. The AAUP, in its Statement on Extramural Utterances, clearly protects Kirstein’s right to his ideas and his method of expression. While the AAUP urges professors to exercise their academic freedom rights in a responsible manner, it does not give universities the power to punish irresponsible speech unless it clearly proves that an individual is “unfit” to teach. No one has accused Kirstein of any unprofessional conduct in his teaching, and to suspend a “professor of the year” for his beliefs is simply wrong.
Although students, staff, and faculty may fear retaliation from an administration either opposed to or ignorant of the idea of academic freedom, I nevertheless urge them to speak out publicly against this injustice. Even if you disagree with Kirstein’s pacifism, or his way of expressing it in one email, his suspension is a threat to everyone’s academic freedom.
Sincerely,
John K. Wilson
Founder, collegefreedom.org