Professor Kenneth Howell was shown the back door last week for writing about...the back door. And worse, he was writing about Catholicism.
Prompted by an interesting complaint letter (more on this in a subsequent post) dated from early May, Howell was removed for "hate speech" by Robert McKim, chair of the Religious Department. McKim is conveniently out of the country at the moment.
No mention of the case yet by FIRE, but the Alliance Defense Fund and the AAUP have both offered legal and moral support, respectively, for Professor Howell.
Given the recently exposed developments of behind-the-scenes shenanigans by the U of ILL in recent months, the developments of this story will be fun to watch as the facts continue to come to light-a process that the UI always finds extremely deplorable.
The case recalls the time when Acton Gordon was fired for printing the Jylland-Posten Mohammad Cartoons.
Posted by Hound No. 9
(Update 7-10-10 23:00pm):
The UIUC Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers have posted that they too find the administrations actions wrong.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Buckey badgered and bucked under Clout
News has reached us that ILL is not the only state that has higher ed institutions which are sick at heart. Nor are the Hounds the only ones with a clout scandal in their midst. Now, the badgers do too.
A Wisconsin state senator is calling for an investigation by the attorney general for the political appointment of Jim Doyle's top aide by system president, Kevin Reilly, for the position of the UW system's chief operating officer. Michael Morgan will start with a approximately quarter-million dollar salary.
What Rep. Nass finds duplicitous was that Reilly never had a search committee, which Nass claims is required for any high level administrator for the UW. In addition to the suggestion that this was a political appointment, we gather by the implication in the AP story, that affirmative action laws were violated by circumventing a wider applicant pool in order to ensure an african american was hired.
We find the race issue unlikely (but certainly possible), and believe that if there was any hiring of Morgan done strictly on the basis of race, it was committed by Doyle when he had Morgan in his previous position. Rather this is more likely another example, as the Tribune puts it, clout going to colleges. Which is in of itself, quite scandalous, even minus the race matters.
Reilly has had damage control experience already. This was after it was revealed the UW Madison had hired 9/11 skeptic, and child-beater, Kevin Barrett.
Posted by Hound No. 6
A Wisconsin state senator is calling for an investigation by the attorney general for the political appointment of Jim Doyle's top aide by system president, Kevin Reilly, for the position of the UW system's chief operating officer. Michael Morgan will start with a approximately quarter-million dollar salary.
What Rep. Nass finds duplicitous was that Reilly never had a search committee, which Nass claims is required for any high level administrator for the UW. In addition to the suggestion that this was a political appointment, we gather by the implication in the AP story, that affirmative action laws were violated by circumventing a wider applicant pool in order to ensure an african american was hired.
We find the race issue unlikely (but certainly possible), and believe that if there was any hiring of Morgan done strictly on the basis of race, it was committed by Doyle when he had Morgan in his previous position. Rather this is more likely another example, as the Tribune puts it, clout going to colleges. Which is in of itself, quite scandalous, even minus the race matters.
Reilly has had damage control experience already. This was after it was revealed the UW Madison had hired 9/11 skeptic, and child-beater, Kevin Barrett.
Posted by Hound No. 6
Sunday, June 27, 2010
One Ikenberry Enough for Now
Interim President of the U of ILL, Stan Ikenberry, personally scuttled an expensive project, that would put a large statue of himself in the renovated Ikenberry Commons (formerly the so-called “Six Pack” dormitory bloc). Ikenberry’s rationale for the move, said Tom Hardy, was "he didn't want to generate any ill will toward the university or put the university in an embarrassing situation."
We very much had to chuckle at the irony of this. From clout, to cover-up, to numerous free speech violations, to underhanded dealing, to discrimination, to insider advancement, etc. It would be awfully presumptious for any member or part of the university to believe the UI has any angstrom of ethics and credibility left to protect.
Nevertheless, Ikenberry should be applauded for his decision in this matter, and we wish that he and other would follow suit more often.
Posted by Alpha Hound
We very much had to chuckle at the irony of this. From clout, to cover-up, to numerous free speech violations, to underhanded dealing, to discrimination, to insider advancement, etc. It would be awfully presumptious for any member or part of the university to believe the UI has any angstrom of ethics and credibility left to protect.
Nevertheless, Ikenberry should be applauded for his decision in this matter, and we wish that he and other would follow suit more often.
Posted by Alpha Hound
While checking on a statement that a poster left about the DI’s “Top Ten” issue, we came across something interesting: When we went to examine the DI's online version of the most viewed stories of the year, we found it had changed somewhat from th e printed one. Actually, it changed quite a bit since it’s original version. The last three most commented stories in the DI were changed, including Jason Ferbey’s attack on Sarah Palin.
What possible reason does the DI have for this discrepancy, we wonder?
Posted by Hound No. 9
What possible reason does the DI have for this discrepancy, we wonder?
Posted by Hound No. 9
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Christmas in ALMOST July
Christmas came early today for all citizens of the state of ILL, when the trial of impeached and indicted Rod Blagojevich began today. The Tribune article (which we just linked <------ back that-a-way ) gives a good look at what the Blagojevich trial means to the much-anticipated electoral carnage of the midterm elections this year.
But we see that the BLAHgo blitzes going on right now will only be a partial stain to the democrat/Chicago/domination establishment, which the Tribune seems to think will act as a a scarlet letter on any
Madigan the vote to impeach BLAHgo is sort of a badge of honor, a reverse of the the possible backlash for the vote for ObamaCare. (though Madigan may wish to do that as well, and point to the unanimous ILL house opposition to Blago's health care bill, which ObamaCare in many ways resembles).
Rather, ties to Blagojevich, will be only half the equation, and in some cases, the better half.
Posted by Hound No. 6
But we see that the BLAHgo blitzes going on right now will only be a partial stain to the democrat/Chicago/domination establishment, which the Tribune seems to think will act as a a scarlet letter on any
Madigan the vote to impeach BLAHgo is sort of a badge of honor, a reverse of the the possible backlash for the vote for ObamaCare. (though Madigan may wish to do that as well, and point to the unanimous ILL house opposition to Blago's health care bill, which ObamaCare in many ways resembles).
Rather, ties to Blagojevich, will be only half the equation, and in some cases, the better half.
Posted by Hound No. 6
Monday, May 31, 2010
Ew. Don't Go There...
Might there be something in the air that affects only mayors of in the state of ILL? Only about a month after Champaign mayor Jerry Schweighart launched a firestorm after his remarks about Obama’s birth certificate, news of a far more violent nature rose concerning another ILL mayor.
Boss Richard Daley, speaking to a reporter about the constitutional challenge to his city’s gun control laws, threatened to stick a rifle up his posterior. The reporter, Mike Dumke over at the Chicago Reader, has this amusing account of an armed man threatening him [with sodomy].
Derriere Daley of course is no stranger to colonic controversy. Coming from a city where mutual butt-slapping occurs more frequently than in Edward Jones Dome, Daley knows all about putting things up other folks' rear-namely his nose .
Both scandals are sure to go down in the anals of history, and the parting thoughts in each case we all had were 'What an ass!"
At least one of them was not toting a gun.
Posted by Hound No. 6
Boss Richard Daley, speaking to a reporter about the constitutional challenge to his city’s gun control laws, threatened to stick a rifle up his posterior. The reporter, Mike Dumke over at the Chicago Reader, has this amusing account of an armed man threatening him [with sodomy].
Derriere Daley of course is no stranger to colonic controversy. Coming from a city where mutual butt-slapping occurs more frequently than in Edward Jones Dome, Daley knows all about putting things up other folks' rear-namely his nose .
Both scandals are sure to go down in the anals of history, and the parting thoughts in each case we all had were 'What an ass!"
At least one of them was not toting a gun.
Posted by Hound No. 6
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The DI posted its “Top Ten issue."
Amusing was its section on the top ten crimes committed on campus . According to the DI, the highest occurring crime is theft. That sounds rather vague., Everyone by now knows, given the leadership and types in the university, administration, and the DI itself, the the most-often committed crime is bribery, corrupting, and fraud. Granted that White’s Global campus failure, and Ghosh’s scholarship deception might, on an intrinsic level, qualify as theft. Perhaps, the DI felt that fell under its umbrella category?
Interestingly, and probably to the DI’s great displeasure, sexual assault/rape did not make the list (basic assault did). This cannot be good for the DI-UI propaganda machine. What will Ross Wantland write about in the buzz now? Perhaps its because as they always claim that most sexual assaults go unreported? This would not come as any surprise, as there are many things that go unreported in the DI, like this and this (as well as several sexual assaults that the DI did not report, like this and this).
But never fear! There are ways to correct these problems when the facts and numbers come up short.
Posted by Hound No. 9
Amusing was its section on the top ten crimes committed on campus . According to the DI, the highest occurring crime is theft. That sounds rather vague., Everyone by now knows, given the leadership and types in the university, administration, and the DI itself, the the most-often committed crime is bribery, corrupting, and fraud. Granted that White’s Global campus failure, and Ghosh’s scholarship deception might, on an intrinsic level, qualify as theft. Perhaps, the DI felt that fell under its umbrella category?
Interestingly, and probably to the DI’s great displeasure, sexual assault/rape did not make the list (basic assault did). This cannot be good for the DI-UI propaganda machine. What will Ross Wantland write about in the buzz now? Perhaps its because as they always claim that most sexual assaults go unreported? This would not come as any surprise, as there are many things that go unreported in the DI, like this and this (as well as several sexual assaults that the DI did not report, like this and this).
But never fear! There are ways to correct these problems when the facts and numbers come up short.
Posted by Hound No. 9
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)