Prof. resigns over Rice Address...

[fastpat]

Now here's a guy with courage of convictions, an example for us all.

STEVE ALMOND
Condoleezza Rice at Boston College? I quit

By Steve Almond | May 12, 2006

An open letter to William P. Leahy, SJ, president of Boston College.|

DEAR Father Leahy,

I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.

I am doing so -- after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret -- as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation.

Many members of the faculty and student body already have voiced their objection to the invitation, arguing that Rice's actions as secretary of state are inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive.

But I am not writing this letter simply because of an objection to the war against Iraq. My concern is more fundamental. Simply put, Rice is a liar.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/12/condoleezza_rice_at_boston_college_i_quit/

[legion]

Good for him...now there are just a couple thousand more professors at a few hundred universities that need to do the same...

[Jim Richards]

Originally posted by legion
Good for him...now there are just a couple thousand more professors at a few hundred universities that need to do the same...

Then we can outsource college education to India.

[nostatic]

an adjunct has little or nothing to lose...

[Jeff Higgins]

Dear Mr. Almond,
Don't let the door hit you in the ass.

In Christ,
Father Leahy

[Joeaksa]

Glad to see another one go. Hope he finds a job that suits him as a Wally world greeter.

[Mulhollanddose]

Originally posted by fastpat
[B]Now here's a guy with courage of convictions, an example for us all.

Another fascist neo-communist college professor. Does anybody doubt if the hard left had their way freedom of speech would be a thing of the past?..Free-speech is already an endangered phenomena on college campi, as the leftist fascists prohibit conservative voice, belittle it, or shout it down when it dares raise its voice beyond a whisper.

[911skb]

He quit because, "Rice is a liar" ? All politicians lie.

What kind of an American citizen are you if you quit because you found a politician to be lying?

-Be a productive member of society.

-Work and contribute to the good of the economy.

-Stay teaching to "impose" your beliefs on the young naive college freshman.

-Work to get the "offending" politician out of office. (Granted Rice was not elected, but there are avenues to work)

Either the guy likes grandstanding or just had to conjure up some crazy story to hide the fact he is lazy and didn't want to work.

Also, as a professor, he thinks that the college should censor who they invite to speak? Let the person speak to offer another opinion on a subject. That's what college is all about. Hearing different sides, digesting the information, making sure you remember the source of the info you are taking in, consider what personal agenda they may or may not be pushing, then make your own decision.

Next time Boston College should ask an adjunct prof. for approval for any invited speaker?

[widgeon13]

The professor most likely has a new book coming out and wants the publicity. I don't think BC is going to have to fight too hard to find a quality educator to fill the position.

[VenezianBlau 87]

A temporary position. Probably received notice of summer layoff and this is his pretextual reason for leaving.

Quote:
Honestly, Father Leahy, what lessons do you expect her to impart to impressionable seniors? Cynical, self-serving nonsense. One cannot both be sincere and seem so. -Andre Gide

Quote:
Steve Almond is the author of the story collections ''The Evil B. B. Chow" and ''My Life in Heavy Metal." No doubt more bloated, mental-masturbatory nonsense.

[fastpat]

I would hope that this is a beginning of colleges and universities cessation of inviting politicians of any kind to speak, for as you've pointed out, they're very poor role models for anyone to follow.

We need to view them as the scum that they are.

[911skb]

Since you think politicians are scum.

I admit to thinking that they all lie at times.

Then our opinion should dictate to the other 295 million US citizens (or the subset of college campus lecture attending citizens) that they shall not hear the opinion of thousands of politicians in our country?

If you want to counter the voice of the politicians, continue your efforts of getting your message out to the masses. You should probably branch out from the Pelican OT forum. Limiting who the masses are to hear from seems like the actions of a "big brother" that you so strongly disagree with.

[trj911]

Canada has plenty of room!

[Superman]

Originally posted by legion
Good for him...now there are just a couple thousand more professors at a few hundred universities that need to do the same...

Good idea. Then we would have the option of just doing away with education altogether, since it seems to only cause citizens to adopt liberal ideas. And another option would be to give those classes over to Bubba and Billy-Bob. You know, the tobacco-chewing guys with the battered pickups and the dogs who are wiser in the ways of the world than those ignorant educators and media professionals.

I never tire of hearing you guys tell me how society's information-traffikers (professors, teachers, news reporters, etc) are the most ignorant of us all. Tell me again about that.

[fastpat]

Originally posted by 911skb
Since you think politicians are scum.

I admit to thinking that they all lie at times.

Then our opinion should dictate to the other 295 million US citizens (or the subset of college campus lecture attending citizens) that they shall not hear the opinion of thousands of politicians in our country?

You saw "shall not" somewhere in my post? Politicians should be heard on street corners, not as role models to graduating classes, and certainly not as an honored guests.

If you want to counter the voice of the politicians, continue your efforts of getting your message out to the masses. You should probably branch out from the Pelican OT forum. Limiting who the masses are to hear from seems like the actions of a "big brother" that you so strongly disagree with.

You're personalizing this issue, a mistake.

[911skb]

Graduating seniors are adult enough to hear from politicians.

I don't agree that they are all scum.

I admit to the idea that all politicians lie at one time or another. But so do all of us; news media outlets (left, right, libertarians, separatist, etc), professors, executives, leaders, followers, you name it, we can all be accused of pushing an agenda and omitting facts at times.

Again, by saying that they should not be allowed to speak at campuses is censorship. The broad spectrum of political ideas in this country is a result of non-censorship.

I'm a conservative, my ears won't melt nor will my head explode if I listen to someone with an extremely different opinion give a speech. I live in Portland, OR, not exactly the hot bed of conservatives and I seem to be fine. We can all learn something from each other.

As far as personalizing this? Of course, we all are.
You posted; "Now here's a guy with courage of convictions, an example for us all."

That's a pretty strong personal statement that you made. I thought that all of our posts here in OT were pretty much of a personal nature. Nothing wrong with that.

I definitely wasn't personally attacking you. Just making rebuttal comments to your statements. If you would rather not have rebuttals posted and have a discussion of differing opinions, then please indicate as such in the beginning of your post.

[pwd72s]

Listen to politicans? Sure. But it's best to ignore what they say while watching what they do. You'll note that Hillary! is talking the "moderate" line these days. Anybody who thinks that's what she'd do if she won in '08 is kidding himself.

[911skb]

pwd72s, exactly.

And if college seniors haven't figured out the way to a true education is hearing many sides of an issue, analyzing what has happened in the past and then making an educated decision about the future, then they have truly missed the point of higher education.

[Jeff Higgins]

I'm relatively sure that the college was inviting a "leader", rather than a "politician". It is indeed a very sad comment on our times that those ranks are mutually exclusive, and that even our colleges are unable to distinguish the two.

[artplumber]

Is Rice a politician? AFAIK she is an appointee (to several positions), and prior to that, was herself, a prof at Stanford. I don't believe she's been elected to anything.

As to the resigning prof-BFD, they'll find someone better.