Professor Fired for Controversial Comments

No, don’t worry, not me.

Barry is very tolerant of wide open and robust debate – as an academic institution should be (and that’s the second most important reason why I love teaching here).

But, check this out:

Nicholas Winset said he was terminated and permanently barred from campus following a Wednesday lecture in which he dramatized the massacre to show that deranged gunman Cho Seung-Hui could have been stopped if another student had been carrying a gun.

“If there were more guns in society, the response time to the (rampage) might have been much faster,” said Winset, an adjunct professor of financial accounting. “Someone might have been able to do something to stop it.”

I don’t have a position on the gun control issue. I don’t want any comments on gun control either.

What I do want to address is the academic freedom issue. I am appalled that Emmanuel “College” fired this guy. Professors should be fired for being disrespectful to students. They should be fired for incompetence. There may be many reasons to fire a professor, but unless there is a hell of a lot more to this story, Emmanuel really stepped over the line — not this professor.

It certainly appears that Emmanuel had some problem with his political views — which I disagree with too. But, to fire him and bar him from campus?

The youtube clips posted by the professor are available here. Sorry, but they are really tedious to watch.