We have been discussing the disciplining of professors for their statements on social media and the erosion of free speech protections for teachers outside of their schools. As many of you know, I take a robust view of free speech rights and have been critical of the monitoring and punishment of teachers for expressing their political and social views outside of campus. The latest such controversy comes the University of Tampa where visiting assistant professor Kenneth Storey was sacked for tweeting, “I dont believe in instant karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesnt care about them.” Few would defend Storey’s comments which were insensitive and unthinking, but that does not alter the question of where the line is drawn for teachers in speaking publicly about politics or society. (He later apologized.)
On Sunday, Aug. 27, visiting assistant professor of sociology Kenneth Storey made comments on a private Twitter account that do not reflect UT’s community views or values. We condemn the comments and the sentiment behind them, and understand the pain this irresponsible act has caused.
Storey has been relieved of his duties at UT, and his classes will be covered by other sociology faculty.
As Floridians, we are well aware of the destruction and suffering associated with tropical weather. Our thoughts and prayers are with all impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
Of course, as a private institution, the University of Tampa is not subject to the protections of the first amendment, which bar governmental abridgment of free speech. However, that does not relieve the university of its responsibility to maintain the free speech rights and academic freedom of its faculty. The university does not explain when it will punish faculty for public comments or social media statements. This uncertainly creates an obvious chilling effect for faculty members who will not want to risk retaliation for controversial statements. The result will be the curtailment of free speech for academics who will not want to risk their positions. I believe the university was wrong in taking this action rather than simply conveying its deep condemnation for the posting.
What do you think?
Regular people can fairly expect to get sacked for making such mindless, pointless statements. Why do we think this fellow is special? Because he’s an “academic”? This tweet is part of his oeuvre, is it?
i support the University’s decision to end their association with this Professor. They hired him, and they should have the option to fire him. He is not barred from teaching. There are many colleges and universities who support radical hate speech.
Well at least it wasn’t Bushes fault, and the Halliburton Hurricane machine must be broken.
. River Oaks did not flood. The Bushes were fine.
I’d like Professor Kenny’s take on this new Hurricane Irma… If Tampa University takes a direct hit from a category 5. Professor at Penn State, Dr. John Lee says Irma will bend left & hit the U.S.
This is the latest I could easily find:
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/reinstate-ut-professor-who-was-fired-over-harvey-tweet-national-faculty/2335794
Unfired due to AAUP intervention but chose to resign. Too bad about that decision.
The problem with the tweet is that it is but a tweet; too short to develop the thought. A carefully constructed paragraph or two might well have avoided this tempest in a teapot by setting the context properly.
Says the man infamous for one liners.
+10
Well, well. The university page that Jonathan Turley linked is now 404. I suspect that the responsible administrator is now in hot water.
Incidentally, the link claiming an apology goes to the FIRE page on this issue and does not quote an apology. Which is not warranted in any case.
“I deeply regret a comment I posted yesterday”- Kenneth Storey
That IS in the link “claiming an apology”.
Your statement that the link “does not quote an apology” is incorrect.
Right. I missed it.
I regret letting my son go to that University. But my regret is not an apology.
Zwarte,…
Regrettably, you win first prize for nitpicking.
Only slightly off-topic, but I support this viewpoint; the current climate is toxic, as is demonstrated here minute-by-minute…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/liberals-and-conservatives-must-stand-together-against-the-extremes/2017/09/01/14410c90-8f36-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.d982d3768015
Right on.
Reblogged this on Truth Troubles.
Sir, since the Professor used his own account to Tweet his opinion on a subject matter and did not involve the adults he was being paid to teach I believe that the University acted illegally at least as far as Civil Rights are concerned. I believe that the University and the Administrator who fired him should be sued in Civil Court. My Degrees are in Sociology and Anthropology, this Professor’s venue is Sociology he is not an Algebra Professor so personally I believe that if this Professor had stated this opinion in class it would have been well within the structure of what he is suppose to be teaching. If this Professor had given an assignment to write an opinion paper as to why each student agreed with or disagreed with this opinion it would have been a legitimate Sociology assignment. The only way to stop schools of any level from acting against our Constitution is to hit them in their bank account. Sir, I liked your article a lot, I enjoyed the read so I am going to reblog your article onto my WordPress Blog.
oldpoet56 – just because of his area of expertise, he should have known better. And you seem to be defending your areas of expertise. My official degree is in Theatre, but I do not stand behind the rants of every actor or actress or director. They have to stand on their own.
OldPoet, If this university professor had expressed his free speech by parading around in a Nazi uniform while holding a sign saying “N****s must die!”, would you still be defending his free speech on his own time?
Nobody is interfering with speech. They are just demonstrating that there are consequences to speech. Those consequences do not come by government mandate (which would violate the Constitution) but from the private sector. The private sector has always been permitted to issue lawful consequences to speech. When you reflect poorly on your employer, you damage the employer. Free speech of an employee is not protect by a suicide pact with their employer.
What he said has the ring of truth in it, IMO.
I would wager that if he hadn’t put Republicans in a negative light, jh woukd never have been fired. The so-called university is apparently a right wing one. Certainly it has no respect for free speech rights. It was founded by a wealthy capitalist. The professor was speaking on social media, not in classes and not even on the so-called university’s grounds. The people who are respinsible for his firing show their ignorance and being opprobrium ti the “university” I have no doubt that. If he had condemned Democrats, he would still have his job and probably get a promotion.
It’s disturbing when such an incident brings out right-wing crazies who feel the need to protect the Republican Party and the so-called President who is its standard bearer. Such a firing rightly lowers the reputation of any educational institution.
Every time I hear a statement condemning “liberals’ from one of these fools, I know I’m hearing the words of people who don’t have a grain of sense about politics or much of anything else. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that anyone who defends the Republican Party of today, individual hard nosed Republicans of today or Donald Trump exhibits his or her rank ignorance. The professor is absolutely right, the GOP doesn’t care about anyone but its own power. I see nothing in the professor’s truthful statement that should not have been said. There was nothing insensitive to the Houston people who are suffering. it was only critical of Republican “leaders” and the Republican philosophy, which deserve the criticism. He spoke the truth. That is most likely why he was fired. Truth doesn’t go down well among right-wing groups or institutions. I hope a respectable university sees his post and decides to hire him. He’d be a great asset to any university that respects the truth and free speech. The University of Tampa is not such a university. I am reluctant to even call it a university,
Exactly.
Perhaps Republicans do care about Texas. They just care more about money.
and they don’t too much care about the Northeast (see hurricane Sandy).
Louise, If this university professor had expressed his free speech by parading around in a Nazi uniform while holding a sign saying “N****s must die!”, would you still be defending his free speech on his own time?
Nobody is interfering with speech. They are just demonstrating that there are consequences to speech. Those consequences do not come by government mandate (which would violate the Constitution) but from the private sector. The private sector has always been permitted to issue lawful consequences to speech. When you reflect poorly on your employer, you damage the employer. Free speech of an employee is not protect by a suicide pact with their employer.
So, let me get this straight; all “liberals” (whatever that label means) are responsible for whatever someone who has been identified as a “liberal” articulates?
(Just asking for a Republican friend who is worried about being held responsible for orange-man’s foot-in-mouth buffoonery…)
Your friend is not directly responsible for The Donald, save only for his vote.
It’s probably wrong to fire the jerk, but who cares? Not me. Liberal Democrats have sowed the wind with this kind of crap, so let them reap the whirlwind.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
First, the tweet is certainly not liberal. Second, everyone needs to help defend academic freedom: read the history of the universities in Germany in the 1930s and then the results of the Iron Curtain which followed later.
See below for my opinion of the tweet.
Academic freedom? Did this dude who threw his banana peel up in a campus tree branch and bullied into apologizing for triggering a group of people….this whole PC culture and chipping away at free speech was started by the Left Wing several decades ago.
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/08/31/ole-miss-greek-life-retreat-canceled-after-banana-peel-found-in-tree/
Don’t believe anything in Breitbart; Faux Neuz.
Academic freedom? This guy wasn’t teaching. He made a choice that reflected poorly on his employer and suffered the consequences.
If this university professor had expressed his free speech by parading around in a Nazi uniform while holding a sign saying “N****s must die!”, would you still be defending his free speech on his own time?
Nobody is interfering with speech. They are just demonstrating that there are consequences to speech. Those consequences do not come by government mandate (which would violate the Constitution) but from the private sector. The private sector has always been permitted to issue lawful consequences to speech. When you reflect poorly on your employer, you damage the employer. Free speech of an employee is not protect by a suicide pact with their employer.
Second, everyone needs to help defend academic freedom:
A couple of generations of academics have turned such institutions into their sandboxes. Academe is what Fr. Paul Shaughnessy has called ‘sociologically corrupt’ and would benefit in spades from obtrusive and brutal outside intervention. You’d bleat about ‘academic freedom’, but that’s not valid and you all deserve it good and hard.
The people reaping the whirlwind are those who voted for Republicans and Trump. Unfortunately, hurricanes are no respecters of ideologies, so a lot of sensible people who had more sense than to vote Republican and even people who did out of ignorance, have suffered the disaster. Nobody deserved what they got. Let’s just see what those Texas Republicans in office do for the victims of Harvey. Will they also vote against Federal aid to victims of Harvey as they did to victims of Sandy? Karma isn’t the problem–it’s the Republican Party philosophy, through and through.
Fine response!
Ann Coulter blamed the gays.
frankly -Ann Coulter blamed gays for a hurricane?
He deserves to be fired. What he said was beyond the Pale.
If so, the Pale is too limited an arena.
I opine this is but another illustration of why tweeting is just setting out mind farts.
Then if it’s just mind farts and you do not have your twitter account registered to your real name because of some narcissistic desires…..then fart away, but applauding DEATH on groups of people DOES represent the university, I am afraid.
False. But indicative of how twittering leads to false impressions.
Free speech should be protected.
Justice Holmes – Google and YouTube are suppressing free speech. Tell them how you feel.
Free speach should be protected.
I agree with JT, virtually all free speech must be protected lest our democracy perish at the hands of those seeking a communist state.
Translation of this dope’s comment: “It make me happy to see the weather cause persons who likely voted different from me suffer and die horrible, traumatic, unspeakable death, and physical and mental trauma, scarring some for life. The fact that some of these otherwise innocent victims voted the same as me, and that a very high ratio are black and/or Latin of lower income, does not lessen their guilt, because they chose to live among the evil ones.
That the same type of weather often occurs here, to those who directly pay my wage, does not sway my opinion. My comments are well within the range of common sense, good judgement, and decency. I am proud to make this announcement public, because if I have thought it, it must be good.”
Anyone who is not intimately familiar with the torture of drowning should read the section of Sebastian Junger’s “A Perfect Storm,” wherein he gives an accurate second by second account not far before the book’s end. This is exactly why Bush and Jesus Obama supported illegal felony water torture, because of its effect.
If anyone cries out to be water tortured, it’s this dopey college teacher.
Beautifully spoken in Truth.
I completely disagree.
That action on the part of the University of Tampa is in clear violation of AAUP standards. UT may well end up on the censured list. Most universities will go to some effort to avoid that.
No serious person gives a cr*p about the AAUP.
I want Liberals to speak out, tweet, stand on the rooftops to let everyone hear the blather that comes out of their mouths..like this assistant Professor Storey. Not only does the public exposure demonstrate the bankruptcy of an entire way of thinking..it throws a nice cloud over who can be anointed as “Professor”.
Read the comment : “I dont believe in instant karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesnt care about them.” What does it even mean? The response to this calamity has been overwhelmingly positive even against some Democrat politicians who told their people to stay home and drown rather than be a part of a Federal (Trump) recovery effort. Please don’t shut these people up, they are daily remanding themselves to the dustbins of history by their tongues.
Nothing liberal about this on anybody’s part.
Do you deny the author of the statement is a die hard (no pun intended) ultra liberal Progressive Democrat, who would only vote Republican under threat of water torture?
Give it up.
Look up the definition of liberal rather than just spouting off.
Frankly, considering Jesus Obama is one of the world’s biggest war mongers, and Bush doubled the national debt to fight two wars already lost, the terms “liberal” and “conservative” have little concrete meaning. What’s “conservative” about invading Iraq and “The Graveyard of Empires?” What’s “liberal” about Jesus Obama’s growth and power of the NSA, felony prisoner torture, and The Patriot Act?
Look even at Trump’s promises to end foreign military escapades. Pre-election the last two POTUS primary promise was to end wars, and all both did was increase military excursions (Trump lately fomenting nuclear winter over N. Korea).
From here to the end, you can guarantee only three things:
Moar War
Moar debt
Less civil freedom
Do you deny that Houston has been made into an environmental hell hole?
Ken – I am not sure where you went to school, but I took a course in which we covered hurricanes at length. In general, you can call them a warm water engine. When they run out of steam they go back to refill on more warm water. Hurricane Harvey caused a 500 year flood in that area of Houston and they will be cleaning up and digging out for years. Prior to this, no hurricane had hit the US in 142 months. This one was payback for the others. 😉
This should be fun; so, uh, which politicians “told their people to stay home and drown?” And what “Federal (Trump) recovery effort” has been put into action at this time?
This is to “if Pravda Faux News said it, it must be true” christine
You don’t read much, do you?
Chemical
Plants are burning.
Ken – when you have that much water, things happen.
Mark M.,,..
In 2005, Hurricane Rita was the direct cause of about a dozen deaths in the Houston area.
The recommendation to evacuate Houston caused massive traffic jams, and about 100 people died in traffic accidents, from hyperthermia, etc.
The officials were mindful of that 2005 experience in making their decisions/ recommendations re Hurricane Harvey.