1. Coming from an academic background, nothing steams my bean so much as a professor misusing his power to try to destroy the incipient career of a PhD student –an offense made even more egregious when such bullying is part of a campaign to punish said student for his political views.
For those of you who haven’t been following the story as it makes its way around the blogosphere, Info-Theory’s Paul Deignan, a PhD student, was the victim of a “retaliatory” attack by a professor who didn’t appreciate Paul’s insinuating himself into a blog thread on the leftwing academic blog, Bitch PhD [this being a leftwing site, the administrator has removed the exchange in question; Paul saved it here]. Evidently, Paul’s attempt to debate substantively and civilly was regarded as beyond the pale. Notes the good professor in a comment on Paul’s blog, “Your behavior is highly unprofessional. If the shoe was on the other foot—if I were disruptive and unprofessional on a right wing site, I’d expect to be called on it. But I don’t troll conservative academic sites. It would be unprofessional to disrupt their discussions and contrary to the spirit of free enquiry—liberal values you seem to be unfamiliar with” [my emphasis].
In the world of the academy (in the humanities, in particular), anything that doesn’t echo established leftist orthodoxies is considered an “attack”—and not surprisingly, this professor took Paul’s criticisms as “contrary to the spirit of free enquiry” (which, sadly, has been twisted to mean “freedom from criticism”). To remedy this, the professor took it upon himself to call Paul’s faculty dissertation advisor (at a different school) to let him know—as a professional courtesy, you see—of Paul’s alleged poor form (which a review of the evidence will show consisted of nothing more than his arguing his positions quite civilly). This, after calling Paul both “a lunatic” and “homely” in an email.
Such is an absolutely unconscionable misuse of power. Further, it as an intentional effort to ruin Paul’s academic career. And because it was done explicitly to punish Paul for his social and political views on the legality of abortion (all of this took place in the context of a debate over Alito’s nomination), it is intellectual McCarthyism at its most baldfaced and cowardly.
The professor’s name is , who teaches history at the University of Northern Iowa. He claims to be tenured, which evidently (in his mind) means he’s reached the exalted position where he can now, without fear of reprisal, wield his position like a cudgel—defending the gates of academia from those whose ideological positions differ from his own.
, in my opinion, embodies everything that is wrong with the modern academy. If his behavior over the last several days is any indication, he is doctrinaire and vindictive; and he is an intellectual coward who uses his authority to crush dissent and punish those who dare to voice it. He is meanspirited, and he hides behind the protection of his tenure. People like professor Hettle need to be held to account if we are ever to reclaim the integrity of the humanities departments, overwhelmingly comprised of those who share Hettle’s ideological bent (though not necessarily his character deficiencies).
Here’s the Department of History’s contact information: Department of History – University of Northern Iowa – Seerley 319 – Cedar Falls, IA – 50614 – (319)-273-2097.
Anyone who has a moment to do so, please contact the Department’s Chair, , and let him know of your displeasure. (319) 273-2097
Paul is pursuing legal action. But I think it important that non-academics express their outrage, as well. After all, somebody we know and care about may one day be in the same position as Paul. UNI’s President is Robert Koob. His office can be reached here: Office of the President, 20 Seerley Hall, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0705’
(319) 273-2566 (voice); (319) 273-6494.
Go on. You know you want to. If you send an email, please post a copy of it in the comments here.
Also, if you run a blog and find this story troubling, please make a mention. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and all that…
2. Phin would like your help with Operation Enduring Service. Please see his site for details. More here.
3. Friendly feminist Lauren from Feministe is looking for some help, as well. Lately, the Feministes have provided me with plenty of material to riff off of, and the cross-pollination between our sites has been an interesting one. Do what you can to help her out.
4. If we have another boy, I’ve decided I’m going to name him Protein Wisdom; if we have a girl, I dunno—maybe Molly?
And no, the wife hasn’t signed off on either.
****
update: Scott Leahy notes that the original comments on Bitch PhD (see 1, above) are available.
****
update 2: Follow-up post on Deignan/Hettle here.
Protein Wisdom? It’s hip, catchy and tells the world your boy marches to his own drummer.
Molly? Sorry, just makes me think of Molly McButter.
TW: “Step” as in Molly works for a stepchild. Those don’t count.
His nickname will be PW, which will then morph into Pussy Whipped. Good luck kid.
Congratulations, you dog.
I agree with you about professors misusing their power. What’s even worse is when a Ph.D. candidate has their career wrecked because of an interdeparmental battel that has nothing to do with the candidate him- or herself. Yes, I’ve seen it. Just one of the many reasons that Grad School Is Not For Me.
So we’ll only have to wait twenty years or so for the P-Dub vs O-Dub Jr. battles. Excellent.
Gail —
The wife’s not pregnant. I was just thinking aloud.
Dear Sir:
I am outraged that an institution such as the University of Northern Iowa would allow one of it’s professors to use their position as Dr. Hettle has. His defamation of Paul Deignan on nothing other than partisan grounds emphasizes the growing disconnect between higher education and the American public. By saying nothing about his attacks, he is allowed to continue to use his position to keep others who disagree with his worldview from making it into academia. Please distance yourself from his remarks and demand an apology.
The internet is not going to let this story die.
Justin Bytheway
Protein Wisdom Goldstein has a nice ring to it. Or will he be getting your wife’s last name?
Well, then, congratulations on coming up with some kickass names.
Actually, Wisdom Goldstein sounds kind of Puritan, like Increase Mather, except for the Goldstein part.
Cotton Goldstein sounds like Jewish underwear.
P.W. Goldstein, eh.
P-Dub…
Got to get to work on that email, now.
PW Goldstein sounds like a Yiddish rapper.
There are wayyyyy too many Dr. Hettles out there. I still remember how one of my fellow history grad students (this was in the mid-Eighties) had her dissertation topic stolen from her by another student, quite openly and brazenly, with the connivance of the department chair, who facilitated the whole thing because he had gone to college back in Nebraska with the purloining student’s father.
DJ PW Goldstein.
P.W. Goldstein sounds good; however couldn’t you accomplish the same thing by naming him Sue? And then he’d have a kick ass theme song also.
Thanks for the link!
Dear sir,
Wallace Hettle actions in response to the online discussions of one Paul Deignan show an appalling lack of respect for academic freedom. It is one thing to disagree with a student–in the best of all possible worlds, disagreement would foster discussion and a sharing of information and ideas.
It would even be acceptable for Dr. Hettle to respectfully disagree with Deignan, and leave well enough alone.
Reporting this to Deignan’s faculty dissertation advisor as though an offense had been committed shows a conscious attempt to damage a student’s academic career because of a political disagreement. The blatant disregard for intellectual diversity or freedom of expression within academia by Hettle is unforgivable.
This story has only begun to spread; how your department and your university respond to this kind of intolerance will greatly affect what people will come to associate when they hear mention of the University of Northern Iowa. It might be wise for your department to distance itself from this kind of behavior as much and as publicly as possible.
Thank you for your time.
-Adam Gurri
Quoth Wally the Liberal:
Gee, you can almost see the light going on above his head—maybe, just maybe, having Supreme Court justices who can spontaneously “make up” new law is a bad thing!
Dangerous. Makes the justices too powerful, one might say.
But I suppose the light of wisdom would die a quick death. He’d probably rationalize that having all-powerful dictators make up new Constitutional rules for us plebians is a good thing as long as the dictators are doing what he would have voted for anyway. Ends justify the means, and all that.
For some reason, the Internet is down in my office and this is the only website that I can access. Obviously this is some sort of Jewish, Neo-conspiracy. How do you people sleep at night?
Dear Mr. Martin,
I am writing concerning Professor Walter Hettle and his pursuit and attempted punishment of a Phd student from another university for his political thoughts and his exercise of free speech. Rest assured that my son, who is about to apply for a graduate studies program, will not be applying at your university unless this situation is addressed openly and quickly.
Xxxxxx X. Xxxxxxx
By the way, I think Paul should just give up. He doesn’t seriously believe he can hold his own against the intellectual heft wielded by a University of Northern Iowa professor, does he? They regularly cream local highschools in the Trivia Bowl on Channel 6.
Dear Dr. Martin:
If you do not instruct Dr. Wallace Hettle (seriously: “Wallace Hettle”? Are you kidding me?) to cease and desist in his attempts to fuck with Purdue Ph.D candidate Paul Deignan, Purdue University will, with a minimum of effort, reduce your pathetic third-tier academic program to rapidly expanding plasma.
It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature, but it takes a damn fool to screw with engineers bearing a grudge.
Sincerely,
Slart. E. Bartfast
Ok, maybe that could have used a little editing.
“This, after calling Paul both ‘a lunatic’ and ‘homely’ in an email.”
Portly middle-aged men whose photographs are displayed on their department website might not want to throw stones. Hettle is no prize in the looks department, to be calling other people “homely”.
I’m screwing up my courage to write. I’m kind of worried that his department head will share his policy of grad student intimidation, and the last thing I need is my thesis advisor hating me… but at the same time, he needs to know just how many people find this reprehensible.
I probably didn’t read closely enough, but is there any sign the young man’s dissertation director took Hettle’s smear attempt seriously? Moonbattish as academe can be, I just can’t see any dissertation director worth his/her salt taking a slander from someone at another university against one of their students with any degree of seriousness.
Well, to be honest, doesn’t bringing a modicum of intelligence and reason to a place which quite clearly is based on pure arrogance classify as trolling? I mean, if going into a site dedicated solely as a shrine to worshipping one charlatan PhD’s ego (And an ensuing circle-jerk of similar intellectual lightweight ego stroking) and trying, instead, to argue with reason… well, I’m just saying, that’s like going to a cat blog and yelling dog’s rule.
Anyway, fools, children, the lot of them. Deignan will hopefully smack some sense into their vapid hides in them with this suit.
I thought the last bit was a preggers announcement too and was quite happy for you.
Could you send me a cigar anyway?
Well, then again, it is less like the cat/dog blog thing and more like going into a blog in which bold-faced lies are the order of the day and attempting to bring reason to the surroundings.
So I suppose it… well, it is more like replying on Gilliard’s blog and saying “Hey, dude, traitor to the race? You’re kidding, right? Have any idea how racist that is?”
Almost as bad as history professors who apparently don’t know the definition of precedent.
The Wallace Hettle Charlatanian Dictionary:
precedent (pres eh dent)—noun—a ruling by the Supreme Court that irrevocably grants the oppressed citizens, mostly women, a new right or series thereof and, in so doing, chipping away at the conservative establishment and bringing America one step closer to the Eutopias [sic] of Europe.
Turing word “research” as in: “Research? Please, that is too easy!”
Again, take it as read that what Hettle did was so completely at odds with the spirit of true free inquiry that it beggars description – I just still wonder whether Paul gave any indication whether anyone at his university took this smear seriously.
I say this because my hope would be that his Engineering professors would not only have a good laugh at this, but that it might even bolster his standing in their eyes.
And if not – if they did actually regard this “thought crime” reporting as something of any weight – then academe is wayyyyy too far gone.
Adam,
I think that when they hear about the University of Northern Iowa, most people are skeptical that such a thing exists.
Personally, I’m waiting for Burge to weigh in on this before I form any opinon.
RE: Point 4, I keep hearing a deep voice. It says, “Paging Mr. Herman…”
Love Wally’s snark. Wow, an “actual professor”? Gosharoonies!
In History, I note, and making light of a mere PhD candidate in MechEngr – y’know, one of those subjects that PEOPLES LIVES DEPEND ON DAILY…
A facility with numbers is not notably a requirement for Hist Profs, I might add.
SB: music
make wit da
Well, whether or not they took it seriously is really beside the point. Hettle wanted Deignan (Which is preferable, Deignan or Paul?) to lose standing with his professors, to “smack the upstart down a notch, teach him to respect those with power” so to speak. Paul is justified in, to me, obligated to start, firing back at Hettle, regardless of whether or not it affected the former’s career.
Hmmm.
I wonder what IowaHawk thinks about this.
Neither is a facility for the truth!
OOOOOHHHHH BUUUUURRRRNNNN!
I’d pull out the old chestnut about fights in academia being so vicious because so little of real significance is at stake. If you’ve been used to pulling out the long knives over whether to serve peanut butter or sardine sandwiches at the Departmental luncheon, then, like Professor Hettle, you’ll be tempted to go nuclear if anybody so much as suggests that Herr Doktor Hettle is in error.
But enough snarkiness; taking a shot at someone by going to their postgraduate faculty advisor at another institution (I’ll leave aside any comparison of the relative merits of the U of Northern Iowa versus Purdue) is pretty cheap and low–even for an academic snob.
OTOH this contains all that one really needs to know about the tenured Dr. Hettle.
If a girl, how ‘bout Estro – Jen?
Another option, if you want a theme going, is Josh. Or just use the nickname “Double Duty”
Wilhimina Mays Goldstein?…
Confusion to yer enemies!
Molly Wisdom…it’s got potential.
Ah, Moonbatia Moveonoria Academia, a most homely sub-species.
BTW, the Iowa Hawkeyes can attest to the existence of Northern Iowa. Ouch.
On second thought, I withdraw my earlier taxonomic statement and leave that sort of thing to Bill.
But UNI really does exist. Really.
Jeez, Iowa only beat them by three touchdowns and a field goal. Must have been an off day for the Hawkeyes.
Hey, UNI is home to this former NFL MVP.
I also couldn’t help but notice that he cribbed the title of his book from a far better known one. The Peculiar Democracy is a lame attempt at tricking some unwitting Civil War buff who is actually looking for The Peculiar Institution. Speaking of peculiar institutions, the revelation that Wally is a member of MoveOn.org should end all serious discussion of this matter.
The pathetic (and unsurprising) aspect is that the wannabe Javert of this turgid little grad school melodrama toils in the groves of that famed Z-list academic backwater, UNI.
I say “unsurprising” not because UNI is an exceedingly liberal campus (it isn’t); it’s because UNI and its brethren in the league of third-tier state institutions have become dumping grounds for the dregs of bigtime humanities grad schools.
The story goes like this: every year the elite grad schools (Duke, Cal, NWestern etc) admit around 4 or 5 new students into each of their departments’ PhD program. When they exit the other orifice, the 1 or 2 brightest will find a gig at another elite university. The middle 1 or 2 will find a job at a decent big state U, say Kansas or Georgia. Then there’s the bottom 1 or 2—the dimbulbs who slipped in and survived by discovering ruthlessness, jargoneering and sycophancy.
What to do with this sorry lot? No half-prestige U will touch them. Luckily, there are the UNIs and Wisconsin-La Crosses and Southwest Missouri States of the world, marginal cow colleges with delusions of joining the academic Big Leagues, who are more than happy to provide a cozy sinecure for a gen-u-wine gradgiate from the honest-to-garsh Ivy League.
Embittered by the lack of job offers from other schools and embarrassed at being stuck in a shithole like Cedar Falls, the newly minted faculty member pulls out all the stops and starts wowing the yokels with his hip big city brand of transgressive semiotix(TM) and Stalinist speech codes. The adminstration at Low Brow State eats that shit up, because it shows that LBSU is right there on the cutting edge of academic hipsterthink, just like the kind they teach over there at the University of Harvard.
Hope that clears up things.
If it’s a boy, his name should be “Wallace Hettle”; if a girl, her name should be “Paul Deignan”
Spam word: think. I think I misunderstood the post.
Ok, so maybe the threat of directed energy weapons was a little overdone. Maybe Purdue can instead offer to start the barbecues at an intercollegiate picnic.
PS Jeff – yesterday reminded me of ‘Night at the Opera’:
Jeralyn: Margaret Dumont
You: Groucho
Me: Chico
Cathy: Harpo
I don’t think complaining to the Department Head is going to do much good.
The good Dr. Martin’s publications include one subtitled “the Struggle for Social Justice in the South.”
When I hear the phrase “social justice,” the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I have come to recognize the phrase as a euphemism for “Big Daddy Collectivist Government is coming to take your property, seize control over your lives and run things for you, for your own good.”
Yikes.
See, fear of this kind of thing is why I’ve just about checked out of academia, mentally speaking, even though I’ve got a while to go before the final sheepskin is mine.
At least this guy’s an engineer. Sooner or later, the bridges he designs (or whatever) will stand or fall.
Humanities types got no protection at all.
Whimper.
*
I read the entire comments thread from BitchPhd. That’s it? THAT’S not constructive to the spirit of debate? Because he made two or three mildly snarky comments about BPhd’s research abilities?
Guatama H. Buddha on a solar-powered pogo stick, that’s lame.
Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.
—Groucho Marx
From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
—Groucho Marx
SB: moving
I write to express my disbelief and disappointment regarding the embarrassment provided to UNI by one Wallace “wally” Hettle, a self-described “Actual Professor.”
As you are aware, Mr. Hettle found it incumbent upon himself to tattle to the academic advisors of a Purdue PhD student about the student’s conservative, pro-life commentary on a liberal website (“bitchphd”). The apparent substance of Mr. Hettle’s grievance was that the student, Paul Deignan, engaged in political discourse with which he disagreed. Mr. Deignan’s participation in the discussion was hypocritically deemed “unprofessional” and worthy of censure in academia. Seeking to justify the unjustifiable, Mr. Hettle manufactured claims of “threats” against him. Of course, he failed to produce evidence of any such threats, and all evidence is against him. Truely apalling.
I hope to hear that appropriate disciplinary action is taken against Mr. Hettle to prevent further peevish abuses of professorial power in academia.
Thank you,
Dr. Martin,
“The Struggle for Social Justice in the South”?
In the matter of Professor Hettle’s treatment of Paul Deignan, how about some social justice in Cedar Rapids?
I am especially dismayed that this could happen at the home school of the great football coach and great moral inspiration John Aldrich – perfector of The Single Wing offense with the spinning fullback, and leader of many fine young men.
Sincerely,
Greg Cotharn
Just to put my cards out on the table, I regularly read Bitch PhD’s site. And I read the exchange as it was happing concerning the PhD canidate in question.
Whereas I think what Wally ( as he is known over there) did was, well, a bit odd. I dont see how this connects to BitchPhD. As the blog administrator she can ban or delete any comments she wants for whatever reasons she wants. You may think this means her blog isnt a good space for discussion. Fine. Read Elsewhere. However, she didnt email the PhD canidate’s advisors and I dont see what she is being involved in this legal action.
Slyvie —
Yes, as site administrator Bitch PhD can ban or delete comments as she sees fit. But doing so and then characterizing the exchange in such a way that it defames one of the participants seems to me to be bad form. Paul writes on it here.
I’m familiar with the Bitch PhD site only through reputation. I think it unfortunate that things have escalated like this, but I think what “Wally” did is absolutely reprehensible, and I will use whatever voice I have to condemn him and the flabby ethics that evidently animate his thinking.
My statehood brother Iowahawk said it well, UNI is rather insignificant, unless they’re playing the U of I in Cedar Falls during basketball season.
As far as the damage to his reputation goes, if his Mechanical Engineering professors are anything like the Civil Engineering professors I had as Iowa State, this whole “kerfluffle” will get him several free meals and rounds of drinks at the local watering hole.
The sad thing here is that most of the complaint emails will fall on deaf ears at UNI. After all, he’s already working at UNI…what are they going to do to PUNISH him? Promote him to the head of the history department?
Dear Professor Martin:
You are aware by this point, I presume, that one of your professors, Wallace Hettle, believes that the civil expression of views contrary to leftist orthodoxy is not just “contrary to the spirit of free inquiry,” but is cause for the network of illiberal leftist professors to spread the word that a contrarian has been spotted, whose career they should all conspire to suppress. This is evil. You have a moral criminal in your department. Do you plan to do anything about it?
Sincerely, Alec Rawls
Some information on the incident here:
https://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php/weblog/entry/19313/
I don’t think I like the pattern emerging in that post, from one of the Bitch’s Litter.
But the best is from the Bitch herself:
By God!
If Campus Watch and the David Project can scare the crap out of moderate arabists at Columbia University why are we surprised at this backwater atrocity?
Ideologues play dirty–what a shocker!
The comment thread had not been removed by an administrator, as you claim above, nor by anyone else for that matter. Deignan can still be read all the way up til he got his ass banned.
See for yourself.
Who’s surprised?
The comments were taken down for a bit</a>, if you can believe this post, from November 5 (scroll down for the update). If they are back now, that’s great.
Does anyone else remember the piece in one of Robert A. Heinlein’s novels abut the grad student who submitted his discertation and got his doctorate, but that said disertation said absolutely nothing at all?
I think the character was in a School of Education.
AH! “The Number of the Beast”….
Talking Back = Suppression, the mantra of the left.
And is the University of Northern Iowa anything like Peter Schickele’s University of Southern North Dakota (at Hoople)? I mean, it’s not a real place, is it?
Or beats his own drum.
Looks like Paul and I are on the same campus. And I did Bitch Ph.D.’s blog design. Small world.
UPDATE: COMMENTERS SLAM DEIGNAN, ATTACK GOLDSTEIN IN BALLOON JUICE SHOCKER
“What the hell is wrong with you people,” asks Cole.
Uh oh. I’ve drawn the ire of the fat Atrios fanboy again (when last seen, this pasty, middle-aged band geek was calling me unfunny after spending a weekend at a convention devoted entirely to sucking Atrios’ balls. Yeah, I know. But some people can’t make friends any other way, I guess). Seems I’m an asshole. Like, a big one, too.
Which is funny coming from a guy who is so soft and chubby and accustomed to being pounded in the rear that he can probably shoot a radial tire out of his enormous, stretched sphincter.
Careful, Lauren: you could become a material witness! Mr. Deignan makes a pretty crummy hero, what with his threats of outing Ms. Ph.D, and the weaselly way he’s justifying it. But she did call him a sexist for no reason I can tell. Wally is priceless. In what way might “professionalism” present itself in the context of a grad student? However, if Wally is available, I think it’d be great for him to form a grad student professionalism web task-force, seeking out academic violators of his code and tattling on them to their academic advisers. Like the Carter Center election observers. They should definitely have badges of some sort.
“By the powers vested in my by Northern Iowa University, I hereby declare your post unprofessional.”
Doesn’t look like much, but imagine it on NIU letterhead. With university seal. Oh yeah.
I plead the fifth.
Nonetheless, I don’t see how he can drag BPhD into it. This is the other professor’s deal for contacting Purdue, not hers.
Ouch, Increase Mather is a direct descendant. S’truth! I got his hair.
Yeah, right. Next you’re gonna tell me that PDQ Bach wasn’t really the bastard whatever of JSB.
Cause that would be big. BIG!
tw: big
If nothing else, the actions of Wally the Wonder Tattler reveals just how emotionally infantile the modern left has become. Going to Deigan’s graduate advisor is the equivalent of a five-year-old running to the teacher and hollering “Guess what I saw Billy do!” And why? It wasn’t because he was disrespectful, as a cursory examination of the comments shows. On the other hand, his opponents seem to have little trouble committing the fallacy of jumping to conclusions and making intellectually lazy nazi references. Wally’s actions not only prove that he can’t handle opposing opinions, he shouldn’t even be let out of the house without entering a plastic bubble first.
All of this goes to show that for all their supposed intelligence, PhDs can be some of the stupidest, pettiest people on the planet.
Hmmmm.
1. Hettle sends a disparaging email to Deignan’s advisors.
2. Deignan pores over his site logs to uncover the identity of someone incidental to his complaint, and threatens to reveal her name to everyone. Contacts his lawyers to set a nuisance lawsuit in motion. Brags about enjoying that kind of harassment.
3. Outraged right-wingers get up in arms about Hettle for trying to oppress people and inhibit free speech.
Why am I not surprised? While I’m not entirely on board with what Hettle did, it’s harmless—if I got email about one of my student’s extracurricular activities, I’d just shrug it off.
Of course, if I learned that one of my students was prone to fire off lawsuits over trivialities, that would be cause to kick his annoying ass out of my lab.
I’ll just repeat here what I wrote over at Cole’s place:
Now, I can’t speak for all “outraged rightwingers,” but my outrage comes from having taught in a humanities department for many years and from being quite familiar with just how seriously these complaints are taken.
You want to affect blase indifference, that’s up to you. But I think what this Hettle prick did was serious.
Incidentally, how’d you feel when Jeff Gannon was “outed” by John Aravosis and friends? Me, I was duly outraged at that, too.
Thanks for working up this post. We’ll get this information around good old Iowa ASAP. We’ll also let some of the conservative legislators on the ed approps committee know about this little situation.
“I like to eat paint chips. Seriously.
Just thought I’d share.”
So, in that case, I’m going to go with Dutch Goldstein
…short for Dutch-Boy.
…what!? It’s requisitely multiculti in it’s unique combination of both Irish and Zionist-Neocon-Chosen peoples, is referent to Jeff’s personal philosophy and combines the masculine menace of Chicago gangsterism with the solid accounting skills of Ernst & Young!
what’s not to love, bubuleh?
Hmmm…this professor sounds like evil incarnate. However, did you attempt to get professor’s side of this story? Or is a one-sided account sufficient to judge?
However, did you attempt to get professor’s side of this story? Or is a one-sided account sufficient to judge?
Spare us the relativistic smokescreen. Anyone who has read the comments posted can plainly see that Wally the Wonder Tattler did nothing more than throw a shit fit to Deigan’s advisor in a juvenile “gotcha” attempt. This kind of behavior is normally the exclusive domain of kindergartners, but why let maturity take charge when there are fellow Piled High and Deeps to impress?
If Wally wants to act like a child, then he and his apologists should be treated as such.
TW:kept. As in “Wally should have kept his foot from the confines of his mouth.”
But doing so and then characterizing the exchange in such a way that it defames one of the participants seems to me to be bad form.
And, of course, you know without doubt that the transcript preserved by Martyr Of The Week Deignan is, in fact, utterly accurate.
Oops: no you don’t. How sad.
Wait, is there some reason to believe Mr. Deignan falsified the .pdf of the comments page? Has anybody made that charge? You don’t, you only say that we don’t know without doubt that he didn’t, which is pretty lame, don’t you think? Maybe you could call his academic adviser and pass on your suspicions.
I am absolutely not defending any of the actions taken in reponse to Paul’s posting, but to be fair, can it really be characterized as “Paul’s attempt to debate substantively and civilly?”
To re-cap for those who can’t open PDF files, here is his first post: “Your [sic] linking talking points w/o analysis. Already I see several points that are exagerrated and misconstrued without even needing research. Not convincing. But go ahead and filibuster. It is what extremist activists do. (And it will help with the GOP elections in the midterm as well as the nuke option.” He then immediately followed with a second post pointing out a specific example, but no less juvenile in tone.
It seems to me that he came out pretty insulting right off the bat, pre-assuming that a more reasonable tone would not produce a worthwhile conversation, or not wanting one. The fact that he had points to express does not change that he smelled like a classic troll- one who is more interesting in slamming than changing minds. Of course no blogger is going to react to any points that follow by agreeing that that he miscontrued talking points because he didn’t bother to analyze them, being an extremist and all. More relevantly, no one is going to be persuaded on his larger arguments about Alito after name-calling and other childish behavior. Thus, trolling.
The egregious and outrageously inappropriate behavior of the Professor was bad enough- and I repeat, I am not excusing it- that this entry doesn’t need sexing up by pretending Paul was sincerely interested in civilized debate. He is no less a victim of a total injustice by pretending he is not also a bit of a douche, and not a particular credit to conservative voice, either. It is possible to critique an entry without being disrespectful to anyone present, as I hope I have. Of course, it helps that I have muchly love for J.G. and my post could be boiled down to nitpicking a single word “civilly” in his entry, but I do think it is possible to reasonably disagree with even unreasonable people, and that it is much more constructive.
Of course, whether or not Paul was a troll does not really matter; it does not justify a thing. But I don’t want that inaccuracy to be a question of dispute that is used to undermine the point of the whole post for people not automatically inclined to agree the attitude of the professor is an endemic problem in academia.
Was there a day when a tenured professor might attempt to help rather than slander a grad student whom he perceived to be out of line?
I don’t think that Paul was in the least out of line, and given the venue, his arguments were indeed civil. “Bitch PhD” doesn’t seem to call for a very high level of discourse.
The prof is a child.
Perhaps its the fact that as a site proprietor who deals with comments all the time that I didn’t find Paul’s tone anything other than provocative and meant to signal an engagement. Paul followed up his dismissal of the post with some very specific, fact-filled comments that attempted to go to the heart of the debate, which is generally what you want in a commenter who is trying to engage you.
Compare, for instance, Paul’s responses to the responses I often get from the lefties who visit my site. Easy to see how Paul’s comments can be seen as civil and substantive, albeit provocative.
Note, too, that as he was met with accusations of being a Nazi and a wannabe-slave owner, he became more substantive in response.
But all that aside you’re right: the actions of the professor are what bothered me. And following through the entire exchange showed Wally in a terrible light.
Dr. Martin:
Great shoes!
Sir,
I am writing in regards to an incident that you may already be aware of; Prof. Hettle’s attempt to punish someone for holding opinions Prof. Hettle doesn’t share. If you are unaware of this egregious attempt to stifle free speech, please feel free to contact me directly and I will provide documentation.
As a scholar I find Prof. Hettle’s loathsome and contemptible actions to be a smear on academe itself. At a time when the scrutiny from outside groups on the academic community is naturally high to learn that a tenured professor is using his position in an attempt to negatively influence a PhD candidate’s dissertation advisor because of a non-confrontational entry in an blog’s *comment section* is evidence of a lack of judgment.
I will expect to see a public apology from Prof. Hettle to the candidate in question, his advisor, and the academic community in general within 48 hours. Failing this, I will be contacting the regents of your university to make my displeasure more public.
I look forward to your reply,
-Rick Stump, M.I.
Deignan’s predicament is similar to William Bradford’s tenure battle at IUPui.
http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/archive/2005/August/IUPUIBradfordIndianHuntinIN081005.htm
This sort of thing is probably widespread.
This is ridiculous. While the prof probably shouldn’t have sent the email, you are all way off base here. He wasn’t trying to stifle free speech, but simply forwarded an email that he found threatening. Yes, a bonehead move, but anybody could have done it: carpenter, mathematician, or housewife. This is a foolhardy PERSON sending a dumb email. His academic position is completely irrelevant.
Ridiculous.
Yeah Paul Deignan is the consumate victim. If you discount his threats of a frivolous lawsuit, trolling, borderline cyberstalking, and threatening harm to a third party you could almost feel bad for him.
All of which he did preemptively—not in reaction to a professor calling his dissertation advisor and calling him a stalker and a purveyor of hate speech for disagreeing with the argument of a left-leaning academic and for arguing such on a public forum.
No.
Instead, its a CYCLE OF VIOLENCE!
“He wasn’t trying to stifle free speech, but simply forwarded an email that he found threatening.”
This is FALSE. Wally Hettle emailed Paul’s advisors before Paul EVER emailed him.
See my blog entry on the subject:
http://advocatusd.blogspot.com/2005/11/hettles-conflicting-comments.html
Heh. C’mon, Waterloo-Cedar Falls isn’t that bad.
Oh wait. That’s right, I left in 1982.
Good day Mr. Martin,
I am writing to you today to express the deep annoyance that I have come to feel by hearing about the blatant misuse of one of your professor’s power. We in this nation all have the right to think and feel as we want and one who makes their living on a college campus should know this better then most. But when a PhD student’s academic career is destroyed due to his disagreeing with a liberal professor on a website discussion forum, that is just vindictive and childish. I am of course referring to the childish antics of one of your so called professors by the name of Wallace Hettle who abused his power in a way that has embarrassed your college as well as our state. When a discussion board is used to discuss ideas that are contrary to his own, Wallace Hettle rather then responding like an adult and having an intellectual discussion decided that a temper tantrum and an attack on the student’s well being was the best recourse. This is not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination. Paul Deignan the student in question, is seeking legal recourse against the college and professor. For the college’s sake I hope you apologize and distance yourself from his antics if not relieve him of his duties all together. For the professors sake, I hope he sticks to his guns and gets a taste of his own medicine. To receive a permanent handicap in his own life due to his forcing his beliefs on another would be just what the Dr. ordered.
Thank you for your time Sir, and I hope this situation can be rectified soon. It is truly embarrasing to think that a college in my state would act in such a manner reserved only for west coast and third world educational institutions.
Andy Walsh
Andy Walsh, is that a joke? It reads like something Spanky from the little rascals would send to the head of a “big company” to make a request, trying to use important salutations and terminology, but everything is just a bit off kilter.
This is an asinine idea. The fact that this guy is a professor is irrelevant. Anyone can send an email to anyone’s boss. You all sending emails to department heads and the like makes you just as big of an asshole as Hettle! I assume most of you aren’t professors, and it just isn’t relevant. You are all assholes if you did this instead of emailed Hettle directly, just like he’s an asshole for what he did. If you did the same, you have become a hypocrite.
The irony probably escapes most of you. Please spare me the ‘We are trying to show him what it is like, to teach him a lesson’ lecture. It is hypocrisy plain and true.
The whole point of the original post, that Hettle was somehow “abusing his power” as an academic, is utter bullshit. He is a humanities professor at a different school than Deignan’s ENGINEERING advisor. Did he use his special “Phd Connections” to do this? Did Hettle need to use his credentials to send this email to the advisor?
No no no. Again, it seems you righties have jumped the gun a bit, because you like to bash professors and the left leaning biases of educated people. (
) Here the job position of Hettle is completely irrelevant.
A stupid thread, rabble-rousing the cattle on the right to act before thinking.
Actually, Giordano, that “hypocrite” argument has been addressed. Same with the different school argument. Had you bothered to read through the comments you might have picked that up.
You would have also picked up that I did indeed teach at a university for close to a decade.
The only irony here is that you decided to pump your outrage glands all over my site without first paying me my money. So consider this a pimp slap. Bitch.
Oh. And here’s the final post I put up on the subject.
Jeff,
I know you have a higher degree. My Spanky comment above was addressed to Andy Walsh’s cheesy letter.
At any rate, the main point is that Hettle’s academic standing is irrelevant, so to set this up as a kind of academic left witch hunt is dumb. Someone’s sweet old conservative housewife mom could have sent Deignon’s advisor a letter: that’s the kind of shit meddling jerks like Hettle do.
I have read all the threads, and don’t buy the convoluted arguments that it ain’t hypocricy. However, that is less important than my previous post, and I admit probably I have a weaker case on this one and let my rhetoric overtake my reason.