Boston College Professor quits because truth, knowledge & Condi do not mix

May 12th, 2006 12:35 pm
Condoleezza Rice at Boston College? I quit

By Steve Almond / Boston Globe

An open letter to William P. Leahy, SJ, president of Boston College.

DEAR Father Leahy,

I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.

I am doing so -- after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret -- as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation.

---SNIP---

I cannot, in good conscience, exhort my students to pursue truth and knowledge, then collect a paycheck from an institution that displays such flagrant disregard for both.

I would like to apologize to my students and prospective students. I would also urge them to investigate the words and actions of Rice, and to exercise their own First Amendment rights at her speech.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6820

And English major, I salute him :patriot:

...and continue to have a deep respect for many of my former professors.

THIS is a man who puts his money where his mouth is.

:patriot:

Good for the Prof! I'm positive there's several other positions out there, and better than this one!

so it's not like he's giving up much.

But, it is nice to see somneone take a stand.

...and there's no way of knowing what that future might have looked like.

:patriot:

that this is a full-time, regular, tenure track faculty member. The gesture is completely different if you are giving up the latter kind of position, especially as an English professor, where good career jobs are few and far between, than if you are giving up a class or two a year that you teach a night for a couple of thousand $, with absolutely no guarantee of any future contract, even if they love you. Also, in Boston, an adjunct could go to another university. So there is no guaranteed future for this person even if s/he had kept quiet and was the best possible teacher, and also that s/he might easily find the same or better part time work elsewhere without having to move.

This is not to denigrate this person's commendable gesture or integrity. It's just that TB wants (as do I) to set the record straight about what the gesture is.

...and this is my post from another thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1170119&mesg_id=1170518 :

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=br_ss_hs/103-6310346-2576623?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=steve+almond&Go.x=11&Go.y=9 . Replacing him with a credible instructor, presumably of creative writing, won't be all that easy. How many talented people support this administration, and would be willing to step in knowing the circumstances of their predecessor's departure? Granted, most published writers don't make a whole lot, and could certainly use the money and position, but I believe most have sufficient commitment to their principles to resist the pecuniary temptation.

deserves our highest honors. I wish we had a DU Medal of Honor (since our nation's official honors have become such a disgrace) to award to Steve Almond. This is NOT "a gesture." What a demeaning thing to say about it. It's the lower guys on the totem who pay the price for their principles! The upper rungs and the well-paid can quit on principle--if any of them would--and write another book, or go on the lecture circuit, and get top jobs in non-profit foundations, or live on their laurels. The little guys get to work for Wal-Mart or Take-Home Pizza. You think this "little guy" is now going to able to find a teaching job anywhere, even in a high school? His career--what he has spent years preparing for, in a costly education system--is OVER. His five years teaching at Boston College will now likely be meaningless and useless on his resume--because he will have to disclose why he left, and there are damn few schools that will want to hire a known boat rocker.

The sacrifices of the poor are BIGGER than the sacrifices of the rich--or the tenured, or the well-connected. BECAUSE they have fewer options. It's not the other way around. This is a truly amazing sacrifice, given the fascist climate in this country's "upper" establishment. He will pay for it for the rest of his life!

Kudos and laurel wreaths to you, Mr. Almond!

I hope that some day you can be properly honored for resisting the normalizaton of war and torture and lying and theft that this Boston College invitation to Condoleeza Rice represents. I applaud you for refusing to tolerate it, and I am awed by the sacrifice of your career that this has required of you! And even if you are never publicly honored for it, you will know, and I and others here will know, what you did and what you sacrificed.

what this person did. They are simply trying to be more accurate about facts. It is not fair at all to treat this as if it were the same as one's giving up his or her full time job at ANY pay level, when that simply is not the case.

Adjuncts are not poor, generally speaking, although no one, including you, knows this particular person's situation (unless you are he). Adjuncts at schools like Boston U. usually have full time jobs in one place (or may be self-employed as writers or consultants), and they teach a class or two at a university because they want a little extra money, because they enjoy it, because it provides great contacts for other work for them, or for other reasons. Sometimes, adjuncts are independently wealthy or make a lot more money than in their private business than do regular, full time faculty. Likewise, universities do not subject adjunct faculty to the kind of hiring scrutiny that they do regular faculty. There is no evidence at all that this person won't be able to get a job because he resigned on principle. In Boston, there are probably English faculties that will hire him tomorrow BECAUSE of it if they have a budget to hire adjuncts.

There are obviously many exceptions to the above.

If you don't believe me, please call any university like BU and ask them. But please do not misconstrue what fellow DUers have said.

Why are you gibbering on as if gauging the precise degree of sacrifice the professor displayed is significant.

When someone is as pedantic as you appear to be, they effortlessly trivialise and demean without even realising it, simply by paying a disporoportonate attention to minutiae. It means you are missing the big picture and however unwittingly are advocating that others do the same.

:rofl:

She is the worst sycophant I've ever seen in my life.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Some advice to elected officials in congress, become real Americans and real patriots again and restore this democracy lost. Thank you Steve Almond.