MSU Relieves Prof. Who Went On GOP RANT: ‘They Have Already Raped This Country’

[Segami]

A professor at Michigan State University has been relieved of his teaching duties after making anti-Republican comments in front of a college class, the Detroit News reported Thursday. Writing professor William Penn said in videotaped remarks posted by CampusReform, an organization geared toward young conservative students, that Republicans "don't want to pay taxes because they have already raped this country and gotten everything out of it they possibly could." In a nod to his students, he added that GOP supporters don't want to pay for college students' tuition.



Penn went on to slam former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann. "But Ann Romney a first lady? And remember this if you are just going to be a greedy bastard all your whole life," he said in the video, which was recorded by a student last week. "In order to be rich like Mitt Romney … you have to be, think about it, Mitt Romney."




"Anybody here want to be Mitt Romney? Him? Married to her?" he asked the class. “The dean of the College of Arts and Letters and a representative from the provost’s office met with Penn, who acknowledged that some of his comments were inappropriate, disrespectful and offensive and may have negatively affected the learning environment,” the university said in a statement, as quoted by the Detroit News.



MSU spokesman Jason Cody told the newspaper that Penn will remain employed with the university, although his classes have been reassigned for at least the remainder of the fall semester.





http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/msu-prof-reassigned-after-going-on-videotaped-anti

[Segami]

1. "Anybody here want to be Mitt Romney? Him? Married to her?"

NO!!!!!!

[hootinholler]

2. kick for later n/t

[Bay Boy]

3. I wonder what some members of our Feminist boards

would think of his use of the word 'rape' in this context?

[Motown_Johnny]

4. You can't say that stuff in a classroom.

I agree with most of what he said (not all) but he still deserved to be fired.

[Segami]

5. And fired (or relieved) he was.

The professor was overly passionate using colorful expressions regarding his republican views.

I would definitely enjoy his class....

[bluestate10]

6. I agree with the professor's general views, but like you, I think spouting those views in the

classroom is inappropriate. I still have bad memories of a college professor who would go off on short religious adulation speeches, stuff like that is difficult for young people, even for the ones that agreed with him.

[Union Scribe]

8. It's college.

(Well sorta, MSU lol. Go Blue.) But anyway, they're all adults there. If an adult can't handle a professor having a different opinion (I had plenty, never tried to get one fired though) then I don't have a ton of sympathy for them. Maybe college isn't right for such sensitive ears.

[Motown_Johnny]

15. Insulting Mrs. Romney is way over the top.

I don't like her either, but what was said is unacceptable.

The professor is in a position of authority and to subject students in the class to that type of speech is an abuse of that authority.

[Blue_Tires]

9. slippery slope

and let's be honest: the ONLY reason he was removed is because one of the big-money guys up top was leaning on the university...

[Blue_Tires]

7. So why does this guy get pulled out of the classroom

when those two CT assclowns in Florida who howled about Newtown being an Obama-engineered Hollywood stunt just to grab guns and install martial law got protected by THEIR schools? (all in the name of 'academic freedom', of course)....Where was "campus reform" (lalz) when that story was in the news??

One of those professors even said in the media he was flying to Connecticut to start his own "investigation" into the hoax!

[FarCenter]

10. I guess he didn't try to use the "creative writing" defense?

Professor

Creative Writing

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/william-penn/

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Ah yes, Campus Reform strikes again

for those wondering what the goal of this organization is, well to impose a right of center to very right wing academic environment, where no academic freedom is preserved.

Should the prof have said that? Maybe not, but the University was wrong to do this, given that Right Wing Views are increasingly protected. Just look at Econ departments

[tblue37]

12. I teach college English. I don't disguise my political stance from my students,

even though I teach in one of the most conservative states in the country. But I don't harp on my politics, either. When I have just 50 minutes at a time, three days a week, to cover as much material as we need to cover, it would be wrong to waste their (expensive) classroom time using the course to push my politics on my students.

Furthermore, even if a discussion topic comes up that does lead to a certain amount of political or social analysis (and that actually does happen quite frequently), it would be wrong to commandeer the discussion and embark on my own rant. I certainly do offer my opinions when it appropriate to do so, as well as my reasoning in support of those opinions, but a teacher must not rant in a way that intimidates his students and makes them think it risky to express their own opinions and analyses.

I think the tone of his rant would be intimidating to most students who disagree with him. I wouldn't want liberal students to fear being browbeaten or treated unfairly by a conservative professor, and I also do not want conservative students to feel intimidated in a liberal professor's classroom.

A college classroom should be a place where both students and teachers feel safe in expressing their ideas and opinions--but such discussions should remain civil, not devolve into bullying or ranting, and especially not when the ranting voice belongs to the person with power over everyone else in the classroom.

[Ilsa]

13. That's how I would feel about it if

I was a student again: I don't want to pay someone in an academic class to teach me their politics unless it is a political class. I want to learn my subject.

[Precisely]

17. Well put!! Thank you

I think the tone of his rant would be intimidating to most students who disagree with him. I wouldn't want liberal students to fear being browbeaten or treated unfairly by a conservative professor, and I also do not want conservative students to feel intimidated in a liberal professor's classroom.

A college classroom should be a place where both stdents and teachers feel safe in expressing their ideas and opinions--but such discussions should remain civil, not devolve into bullying or ranting, and especially not when the ranting voice belongs to the person with power over everyone else in the classroom.

[Isoldeblue]

14. Sometimes, one has to learn

how to choose one's battles. He could have done more good in his position with saying a little less or at the least, in a more subtle manner. While I agree completely with his views and wish that MSU were more liberal, it isn't.
So now he and the students pay the price, no matter how unfair.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. What a narrow and sad little world we're making here. I can't imagine how

unfulfilling and frustrating it would be to attend or teach at a university this stifling.

[Precisely]

18. See #12

[Egalitarian Thug]

20. Exactly my point. I learned most of what I learned in college from engaged professors

with a passion for teaching who largely ignored the syllabus in order to guide the class through the processes they chose to reach the relevant knowledge they sought. "Getting through the material" was a distant second or third priority.

I'm also pretty sure that the reason I had so many exceptional professors was due, in no small part, to the fact that they were not under the microscope of idiocy that dictates the college experience today. I taught a few classes in the UC system in the late '90s for about five minutes and learned which way the wind was blowing. Made deciding to go back to making piles of cash where results were all that mattered very easy.

[Precisely]

22. Exactly?

#12 points out that civilized professional behavior isn't "stifling"

"I think the tone of his rant would be intimidating to most students who disagree with him. I wouldn't want liberal students to fear being browbeaten or treated unfairly by a conservative professor, and I also do not want conservative students to feel intimidated in a liberal professor's classroom.

"A college classroom should be a place where both stdents and teachers feel safe in expressing their ideas and opinions--but such discussions should remain civil, not devolve into bullying or ranting, and especially not when the ranting voice belongs to the person with power over everyone else in the classroom."

[Egalitarian Thug]

24. So you view your job as being a neutral presenter and part-time referee.

Civilized Professorial Behaviour? Really?

[Precisely]

25. I thought it was very well put and hoped for more professors like that

Maybe we read it differently

[Egalitarian Thug]

26. From that short reply (#12), what I got was that you have a greater concern for making your

students comfortable, than for engaging them, and that teaching them how to think isn't even on the map.

[Precisely]

28. Someone else wrote it and yes, we read it very differently

[Egalitarian Thug]

29. Ah, you are right, my apologies.

This person strikes me as exactly the kind of trainer the "education" corporations are looking for. The problem is that university is supposed to be about learning, not training. Animals are trained to perform tasks and tricks, people are supposed to be taught so that they can figure out how and what needs doing for themselves.

I'm just so happy to be old, It is difficult to imagine how hard it must be for bright young people to wade through the morass of stupid that this country has become.

[Precisely]

30. tblue37 had some good points.

The gist for me was:

"I certainly do offer my opinions when it appropriate to do so, as well as my reasoning in support of those opinions, but a teacher must not rant in a way that intimidates his students and makes them think it risky to express their own opinions and analyses."

As for your point, it's tricky finding students with opinions of their own if they've been overdosed with Teach To The Test.

"It is difficult to imagine how hard it must be for bright young people to wade through the morass of stupid that this country has become."

Yes it is. Good luck to us all.

[Precisely]

19. The kind of doofus that gives doofuses a bad name

[tokenlib]

21. A reprimand and an apology would have been appropriate..

Any more punishment I think is excessive.. It is difficult to be human sometimes, a lot of us get wound up and rant..not always in appropriate venues. It is hard to behave all the time. It is troubling that the professor was relieved of his classes. Honestly a gag on the mouth and having to watch what you say all the time also can negatively affect the learning environment.

Ok, so MSU did the best public relations response they could...but I think it's excessive. Honestly if I went to MSU, now I'd be looking for a conservative professor to "out" for expressing themselves at an inopportune moment for payback...or.. perhaps a teachable moment.

[etherealtruth]

23. My daughter attends State ....

She did not have class whim... she has friends that did. The "kids" aren't happy about his removal from his classes.

[Hoyt]

27. Today's young republicans could use some scolding.