>>> Joshua Katz for a column in which he characterized the Black Justice League (BJL), a student activist group, as a “terrorist organization.”
I think the university now seems to have subscribed to the talk shit get hit school of thought policing.
the actual quote seems to be: "The Black Justice League, which was active on campus from 2014 until 2016, was a small local terrorist organization that made life miserable for the many (including the many black students) who did not agree with its members’ demands."
what's happening is that the professor has some kind of objection to removing statues (paraphrasing: if the university starts to remove them where's the line? no one from that era can pass the "purity test"), plus has a strong opinion on the methods of those who wanted the statues gone. and apparently this is a bad combo. (strong language and contrarianism doesn't mix well in SJW zones.)
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oh, but to be fair, the prof's declaration is a very bad string of classics like some of my best friends are SJWs, and "I support their right to speak as they see fit. But I am embarrassed for them." and everyone has taken a side (regarding a document that asks for ~48 changes, some affirmative action ones), 1619 project bad, the aforementioned terrorist hyperbole, then comparing some instagram live video to Maoist public humiliation/torture sessions, and finally without university police what would happen!?
To understand , I think it would be important to understand what that "terrorist" student organization did to make him characterize it as such. It's such a strong accusation. Were they actually terrorists? Or is he just calling students that whose politics he doesn't like?
The guy should have been "axed" for dating a student. Not for his opinions. Given the power dynamics at play, any professor found to be dating a student should be terminated immediately. The real scandal here is why he wasn't "axed" in 2020 for dating a student. Am I wrong in believing that a professor dating a student is a far more egregious "crime" than stating an opinion on a controversial topic?
A professor dating their student is not unprecedented. Abhijit Banerjee married his PhD student Esther Duflo. Both are tenured at MIT and even won Nobel prize in Economics. I'm pretty sure this is not the first time.
It used to be more accepted, but as people have become more sensitive to the power differential, those sorts of behaviors are no longer treated as lightly.
> The guy should have been "axed" for dating a student.
If you have ever been at school long enough (let alone university) you'd probably know that there's a large percentage (as in, nothing like 0.x %, much higher than that) of teachers or professors who have relationships with some students (that are either hidden or well known but nobody cares).
In universities we are talking about people who are adults - it's up to the school to decide what is acceptable or not, but in my understanding there's a lot of this going on when you have younger professors and students in close contact.
A professor (of either gender) dating a student of age and over whom s/he has no authority, position of influence, or grading effect should not be a problem.
> he wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he had "survived cancellation" after [he] characterized a Princeton student group as a "local terrorist organization."
Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but this tells me everything I think I need to know about this guy.
> Though the university did not formally sanction Katz, it did include him on a list of racists—such as the notorious segregationist Woodrow Wilson—who have marred Princeton’s legacy, which was published on a university website and presented at a mandatory orientation session for freshmen in August.
Imagine calling out the insanity around you and the response is that you are added to an “official list of racists” that’s drilled into freshman before they even begin their first day of school. And their parents are probably paying $58,000/year for it.
Man, the article really buries the meat of the issue to try to sell a narrative.
> But when the liaison became public through the Daily Princetonian’s report, Princeton launched a second investigation, telling Katz that certain details in the article "remain uninvestigated and unaddressed." Under pressure from students, the school tasked two separate bureaucracies—the Office of the Dean of Faculty and the Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration—with investigating the tryst. Though the former undergraduate declined to participate in the 2018 investigation, she did participate in the 2021 inquiry, alleging not just impropriety but sexual harassment.
The story seems much more about this relationship, the university trying to settle it quietly to avoid bad publicity, then having to readdress the case when it became public and the key witness bece willing to talk about it.
It is possible/probable that the story about the relation was leaked by someone at the university. I am little skeptical they were high up since the leal also hurts the university.
While I don't think the professor should be fired for it, I agree with the university president that calling a group of student protestors "terrorists" is not responsible free speech. That isn't effective discourse and his criticism would have been more effective if he avoided using such a loaded term figuratively.
Every time I read about some school doing something stupid and think “this has got to be the bottom, adults will step in and fix things;” a new story comes up with more surreal, Kafkaesque procedures.
I’m trying to think of something that might help and perhaps tort over libel and defamation.
> Though the university did not formally sanction Katz, it did include him on a list of racists—such as the notorious segregationist Woodrow Wilson—who have marred Princeton’s legacy, which was published on a university website and presented at a mandatory orientation session for freshmen in August.
This clearly seems like t damaged the professor. But it would take a judge to rule that their evidence of racism is not sufficient.
If Princeton has to start paying out multimillion dollar settlements, it might force them to rationalize their approach.
19 comments
[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 59.1 ms ] threadWhat the fuck is happening
Has the sort of "some people are more equal than others" ring to it.
I think the university now seems to have subscribed to the talk shit get hit school of thought policing.
the actual quote seems to be: "The Black Justice League, which was active on campus from 2014 until 2016, was a small local terrorist organization that made life miserable for the many (including the many black students) who did not agree with its members’ demands."
https://quillette.com/2020/07/08/a-declaration-of-independen...
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what's happening is that the professor has some kind of objection to removing statues (paraphrasing: if the university starts to remove them where's the line? no one from that era can pass the "purity test"), plus has a strong opinion on the methods of those who wanted the statues gone. and apparently this is a bad combo. (strong language and contrarianism doesn't mix well in SJW zones.)
---
oh, but to be fair, the prof's declaration is a very bad string of classics like some of my best friends are SJWs, and "I support their right to speak as they see fit. But I am embarrassed for them." and everyone has taken a side (regarding a document that asks for ~48 changes, some affirmative action ones), 1619 project bad, the aforementioned terrorist hyperbole, then comparing some instagram live video to Maoist public humiliation/torture sessions, and finally without university police what would happen!?
If you have ever been at school long enough (let alone university) you'd probably know that there's a large percentage (as in, nothing like 0.x %, much higher than that) of teachers or professors who have relationships with some students (that are either hidden or well known but nobody cares).
In universities we are talking about people who are adults - it's up to the school to decide what is acceptable or not, but in my understanding there's a lot of this going on when you have younger professors and students in close contact.
Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but this tells me everything I think I need to know about this guy.
Imagine calling out the insanity around you and the response is that you are added to an “official list of racists” that’s drilled into freshman before they even begin their first day of school. And their parents are probably paying $58,000/year for it.
> But when the liaison became public through the Daily Princetonian’s report, Princeton launched a second investigation, telling Katz that certain details in the article "remain uninvestigated and unaddressed." Under pressure from students, the school tasked two separate bureaucracies—the Office of the Dean of Faculty and the Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration—with investigating the tryst. Though the former undergraduate declined to participate in the 2018 investigation, she did participate in the 2021 inquiry, alleging not just impropriety but sexual harassment.
The story seems much more about this relationship, the university trying to settle it quietly to avoid bad publicity, then having to readdress the case when it became public and the key witness bece willing to talk about it.
It is possible/probable that the story about the relation was leaked by someone at the university. I am little skeptical they were high up since the leal also hurts the university.
While I don't think the professor should be fired for it, I agree with the university president that calling a group of student protestors "terrorists" is not responsible free speech. That isn't effective discourse and his criticism would have been more effective if he avoided using such a loaded term figuratively.
I’m trying to think of something that might help and perhaps tort over libel and defamation.
> Though the university did not formally sanction Katz, it did include him on a list of racists—such as the notorious segregationist Woodrow Wilson—who have marred Princeton’s legacy, which was published on a university website and presented at a mandatory orientation session for freshmen in August.
This clearly seems like t damaged the professor. But it would take a judge to rule that their evidence of racism is not sufficient.
If Princeton has to start paying out multimillion dollar settlements, it might force them to rationalize their approach.