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Dark Days in US Academe
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foracademicfreedom/


Roosevelt University of Chicago, IL has fired a philosophy and
religion professor for allowing students in his class to ask questions
about Judaism and Islam. The chair of the department, Susan Weininger,
fired the professor, Douglas Giles, saying that students should not be
allowed to ask whatever questions they want in class. Weininger
ordered Giles to censor his curriculum, restrict his students'
questions, and to not respond to controversial questions or comments
from students.

Weininger said that free discussion in world religions could "open up
Judaism to criticism." Any such material, she said, was not
permissible to be mentioned in class discussion, textbooks, or
examinations. Further, she ordered Giles to forbid any and all
discussion of the "Palestinian issue," any mention of Palestinian
rights, the Muslim belief in the holiness of Jerusalem, and Zionism.
When Professor Giles refused to censor his students, Weininger fired him.

The Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization (RAFO) filed a grievance on
behalf of Giles citing the faculty contract forbidding the university
from restricting academic freedom. Roosevelt University Associate
Provost Louis Love denied the union's claim saying that Weininger was
entitled, as department chair, to set a professor's curriculum and
that this was not an academic freedom issue, but a "pedagogical
issue." RAFO has appealed the ruling to arbitration, confident that
Prof. Giles' academic freedom was violated and an impartial arbitrator
would find this so.

This case is just one example of a growing trend of right-wing
attempts to censor the academic freedom of professors and students.
Here, a department chair who called all Palestinians "animals" and
says college religion courses should teach that only Jews have a
legitimate claim to the land of Israel, has fired a professor whose
only "sins" were refusing to teach a biased class and allowing open
discussion in his classroom. This can NOT be allowed to stand!

Students of Professor Giles have started a Yahoo Group to connect
activists nationwide who want to help us force Roosevelt University to
end censorship and reinstate Giles. More information is available at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foracademicfreedom/

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Der Kluge gibt nach.....und weil die Klugen immer nachgeben...regieren die Dummen die Welt....

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