What do you think was behind the tenure denial that caused the shooting. Bad science or

[CK_John]

not qualified. This seems like a neocon science policy, my way or you get killed. My opinion.

[mzteris]

1. obviously there was something wrong

with the person -

you think maybe they picked up on that?

[prolesunited]

2. This is ridiculous speculation

and dishonors the people who died today.

[stray cat]

3. It is scary and dangerous when you have to fire someone - no matter what profession

and thats basically what you do most places when you deny someone tenure or when you fail to graduate a student

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. We'll just have to wait on that, won't we?

There's absolutely no point in speculating when there is so little available information. It's just a tragedy that could have been caused by a variety of things, including mental illness.

[Divine Discontent]

5. my goodness, what happened? I see this is in GD:P, so I'm unaware of what specifically happened.

[timeforpeace]

14. Check out the news sites.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. The whole thing is senseless.

[QC]

7. The tenure process in a research university is brutal.

I watched one promising and very kindhearted young professor in my graduate program end up in drug rehab. Another had to sue for tenure, because a senior prof had it in for her, and then she quit once she was tenured because the experienced had scarred her so much.

I have seen young faculty make good progress until year five and then freak out and quit for fear of going through tenure review. As a member of search committees I have seen more than one candidate who had taught at a string of colleges--for only four or five years at each. We know what happened there.

My guess is that the woman just cracked.

[queenjane]

8. Academia is way more competitive than corporations

I work at a large private research university. The backstabbing, deal-making, etc., that goes on to get (or get on) prestigious grants, get the plum spots on authors' listings on published papers, and, yes, to get tenure, is like a Roman Circus. These professors have invested many years and massive funds to get PhDs and post-docs, and if they don't get tenure, in their minds all that is wasted. For many I've met, there is NO life or prospects beyond that tenured position.

[CK_John]

9. Tenure boards may have just loosened up a little. n/t

[QC]

10. Being denied tenure is the kiss of death, even at teaching institutions.

Anyone who has been denied tenure is seen as damaged goods, no matter what the reason.

[DeschutesRiver]

11. The cause was the instability of this person.

The act could have been triggered by a thousand bad things that life has dealt out to any of us. It happened to be the tenure denial that helped this unstable person go over the edge, but to think that had tenure been granted, this never would have happened is probably false comfort.

Any other trigger could have caused an equal or worse explosion at some point in this person's life.

[DeschutesRiver]

13. Just on the news that in the past, she had shot and killed her brother.

Accused Alabama prof shot, killed brother in 1986
Posted: Feb 13, 2010 12:48 PM PST
Last Updated: Feb 13, 2010 04:28 PM PST

By DESIREE HUNTER and KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press Writer
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - The professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting was a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, inventor and mother whose life had been marred by a violent episode in her distant past.

More than two decades ago, police said Amy Bishop fatally shot her teenage brother at their Massachusetts home in what officers at the time logged as an accident - though authorities said Saturday that records of the shooting are missing.

Bishop had just months left teaching at the University of Alabama in Huntsville when police said she opened fire with a handgun Friday in a room filled with a dozen of her colleagues from the school's biology department. Bishop, a rare woman suspected in a workplace shooting, was to leave after this semester because she had been denied tenure.

Police say she is 42, but the university's Web site lists her as 44.

Some have said she was upset after being denied the job-for-life security afforded tenured academics, and the husband of one victim and one of Bishop's students said they were told the shooting stemmed from the school's refusal to grant her such status. Authorities have refused to discuss a motive, and school spokesman Ray Garner said the faculty meeting wasn't called to discuss tenure.

William Setzer, chairman of chemistry department at UAH, said Bishop was appealing the decision made last year.

"Politics and personalities" always play a role in the tenure process, he said. "In a close department it's more so. If you have any lone wolves or bizarre personalities, it's a problem and I'm thinking that certainly came into play here."

The three killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and two other faculty members, Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson. The wounded were still recovering in hospitals early Saturday. Luis Cruz-Vera was in fair condition; Joseph Leahy in critical condition; and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo also was in critical condition.

Descriptions of Bishop from students and colleagues were mixed. Some saw a strange woman who had difficulty relating to her students, while others described a witty, intelligent teacher.

Students and colleagues described Bishop as intelligent, but someone who often had difficulty explaining difficult concepts.

Bishop was well-known in the research community, appearing on the cover of the winter 2009 issue of "The Huntsville R&D Report," a local magazine focusing on engineering, space and genetics. However, it was unclear how many of her colleagues and students knew about a more tragic part of her past.

She shot her brother, an 18-year-old accomplished violinist, in the chest in 1986, said Paul Frazier, the police chief in Braintree, Mass., where the shooting occurred. Bishop fired at least three shots, hitting her brother once and hitting her bedroom wall before police took her into custody at gunpoint, he said.

more at link: http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=11981551

[timeforpeace]

12. What's with the reich wing corporate media calling her a liberal and a socialist? How the hell

do they know that?

[CK_John]

15. What else is going to surface with this person and how connected is this family to have her

still on the street. Shot 3 times and killed her brother in '86 and was a prime suspect in an attempted pipe bombing of a professor in '93.

They should look at her for the poison letters after 9/11 and the rash of scientist that turned up dead in the last 10 yrs.