http://www.hirhome.com/rozin2.htm
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BRIEF PREFATORY NOTE from Francisco Gil-White
Below is the text
of a second email that Paul Rozin sent to me, and that I have also
construed as a threat. Following the text of the email, I analyze its
content.
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Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:12:29 -0400
From: Paul Rozin <rozin@psych.upenn.edu>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.74 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en
To: Francisco Gil-White <fjgil@psych.upenn.edu>, "rozin@cattell.psych.upenn.edu"
<rozin@psych.upenn.edu>, McCauley Clark <cmccaule@psych.upenn.edu>
Subject: Re: About my course and other stuff
X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.36
Francisco.
I'm afraid you need protection, whether you think so or not. Everyone is
censored all of the time, as when, for example, you decide not to ask a
question at a talk, or tell someone you think their work or mind is
poor. By mixing your politics and your teaching, you are treading on
very dangerous ground. The students from whom I heard about your course,
were not only surprised at your session on Milosevic, but felt it was
delivered with a passion that was unlike the rest of your course, and
inappropriate for a university class. Frankly, from what I can tell, at
least among the people I deal with (students and faculty), your
impassioned endorsement of your views gets in the way of your
communicating, and causes people to doubt you. In any event, I am
opposed to Bush, capital punishment, and many other things, but I do not
bring this up in class. It is a particular problem for you because you
are trying to shield your political writings from consideration as part
of your dossier. Unfortunately, by bringing this up in your course, you
have made this much more difficult.
I can't believe your conscience prevents you from withholding some of
your political views in class. All of the rest of the faculty manage to
do that. I know you feel that you have a piece of the truth that no one
knows, but you are not unique in that, and anyway, you may be wrong. I
will not defend your right to say anything you want in class. You don't
have that right. No one does. You have a responsibility as a faculty
member. I think you are being way overrighteous, and are being blinded
by your political convictions. If you really feel that compelled by
them, you should resign your academic position, and move on to
journalism.
Paul
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ANALYSIS OF THE ABOVE EMAIL, by Francisco Gil-White
The accusation in
the email above is that I mixed my teaching and my politics. The
complaint was about one half of one lecture of one of my courses. And in
that lecture, I did not share my political beliefs. Instead, I
documented a fact: that the mass media lied about Slobodan Milosevic's
1989 speech in Kosovo.[1]
Had I shared my political beliefs, however, that would not have been
inappropriate.
As I document in a letter that I sent to the psychology department
chairman, everything I have done in the classroom is explicitly
protected by University of Pennsylvania Faculty Handbook. Indeed, it
would be remarkable if it were written anywhere that professors are not
supposed to document facts for their students!
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Footnotes
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[1] "How
Politicians, the Media, and Scholars Lied about
Milosevic's 1989 Kosovo Speech: A review of the
evidence"; Emperor's Clothes; 9 February 2002;
by Francisco Gil-White
http://www.hirhome.com/yugo/milospeech.htm