Very interesting. The professor who led her students in destroying a display has been placed on leave and will retire from the university, apparently as a result of a vote of the faculty senate at Northern Kentucky. Unversity President James Votruba has sent an email message to the entire campus, faculty and students, which was published by Instapundit. I'll reproduce the entire letter below the fold:
I am writing to comment on the recent destruction of an approved campus display created by the Northern Kentucky Right to Life student organization.One of the important roles that a university must play is to be a forum for debate and analysis concerning the important issues of the day. Often these issues are surrounded by strident rhetoric and strong emotions which makes it even more incumbent on the university to create and nurture an intellectual environment in which reason and evidence prevail and where all points of view can be heard.
Northern Kentucky University has a distinguished record of addressing important public issues in a balanced way. We are proud that, as a campus, we are not the captive of one ideology or point of view. At their best, universities are not places of comfortable conformity. They are places where ideas collide as students and faculty search for deeper understandings and perspectives.
While the University supports the right to free speech and vigorous debate on public issues, we cannot condone infringement of the rights of others to express themselves in an orderly manner. By leading her students in the destruction of an approved student organization display, Professor Sally Jacobsen's actions were inconsistent with Northern Kentucky University's commitment to free and open debate and the opportunity for all sides to be heard without threat of censorship or reprisal.
It has been heartening that student and faculty groups that do not necessarily support the position of Northern Kentucky Right to Life have come out strongly in support of the organization's right to be heard through their display. This reflects a commitment to the importance of free speech and inquiry as a hallmark of our University.
Professor Jacobsen has been removed from her remaining classes and placed on leave from the University. She will retire from the University at the end of this semester. The Faculty Senate, representing more than 1,000 NKU faculty members, has taken strong action today that affirms the importance of free expression as a defining quality of the University. Our campus has spoken with a strong and unified voice. Further action may occur once a full investigation has been completed.
The action taken by the University should be considered in the context of Professor Jacobsen's entire 27 year career at NKU. Nevertheless, her recent lapse of judgment was severe and, for a period of time, has caused some in our community and beyond to question whether Northern Kentucky University upholds freedom of expression. My answer to this question is an unequivocal yes. NKU lives its commitment to free expression and responds when that commitment has been compromised.
America is, today, debating a variety of polarizing issues around which people feel great passion. It is not surprising that these strong sentiments find their way onto college campuses. However, our role is to add light to these debates, not more heat. If we don't serve this role, who will?
Should she have been fired for what she did? I think she is rightly being investigated for criminal charges of vandalism and theft, and will likely be charged with those things soon. Should she also have been fired for it? I can see arguments on both sides and, as a general rule, I'm content to leave that sort of thing up to the discretion of the faculty and administration. But as I have been from the start, I am enormously impressed with Votruba's passionate and consistent defense of free speech and his unwillingness to compromise that principle for political expediency.
Update: According to several commenters at Volokh, the professor was retiring at the end of this semester anyway, so perhaps it's wrong to characterize this as a firing. She was placed on leave for the rest of the term, likely with pay, and will retire when she planned to do so. Given that, I don't think one can argue that the punishment is excessive.
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I'm an associate professor of English who has taught courses on literature and the First Amendment, and, yes, assuming that the appropriate process is followed, firing would be appropriate. Blocking the free expression of students and other faculty under the guise of one's own 'freedom of expression'--and encouraging one's students to do likewise--does not fall under the protection of the First Amendment or any state constitution or university guidelines that I am aware of. Destroying a display with which you disagree is antithetical to the free exchange of ideas that should be at least found in our universities, if not in other fora.
Yikes. What the professor did was very wrong, and deserved a very serious censure and warning.
But one strike and you're out? I'd like to thin that there's a little more humanity in the world than that. I bet if it weren't such a visible strike, she wouldn't be out, but jeez, when you screw up it'd be nice if you had a chance to redeem yourself.
-Rob
Rob, "one strike" doesn't capture the nature of the offense. This professor is completely "refusing to play by the rules" in the first place. I'd say that, by doing so, she is the one who has taken herself out of game.
Re the update, just to point out, it is not entirely clear that her separation from NKyU will be her only punishment. There is still the potential for a charge against her for vandalism and conspiracy to vandalize.
The Email from the NKyU president, indicating that the display had been approved by the university, clears up some questions that had been raised in comments on a post below.
Wow, great letter. I especially liked this bit:
I'd say that if your university experience doesn't include a lot of ideas colliding, it's hardly worth going!
NKU did the right thing in response to the vandalism, and that's pretty much all I can say on this matter. I will, however, add this note: the anti-abortion crowd have been going out of their way to shout down reasoned debate and sensible compromise by arousing strong emotions; and this incident is a result of their success. Just sayin'...