Academia gets it right...for a change.
On Tuesday, November 22, the Warren County Community College Trustees accepted the resignation of Prof. John Daly. Daly had his 15 minutes of infamy when he responded to a student's announcement of a lecture featuring an Iraq War veteran speaking in support of the U. S. role there. Responding with such intolerant and threatening vitriol as "real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people’s needs", and, “I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like yours won’t dare show their face on a college campus”, Daly brought national headlines to the Washington, NJ school.Outrage was immediate. Conservative commentators cited this as just one more in a long series of abuses by academics in their goals of indoctrinating their students. Liberals, once again, were ominously silent.
This is far from the first time a college professor has made such a statement. Their reasoning behind this is both indoctrination and to test the waters. Testing the waters involves seeing how far they can go in advancing their extreme views without opposition.
Daly had made a gross political miscalculation.
New Jersey is a "blue state", having supported Democrats in most statewide elections. Unfortunately for libs like Daly, Warren is a county-operated institution. Mountainous, agricultural Warren County is not blue, but a deep shade of red, President Bush having won the county by a 24-point margin. All elected County officials are Republicans, and Warren is represented in Congress by Rep. E. Scott Garrett, a Club For Growth conservative. The College Trustees are appointed by the County Board of Chosen Freeholders (County Commissioners). The students, alumni and parents come from this region.
Not the type of area that would have much patience for kooks like Daly.
This past Tuesday, the Trustees held a special emergency meeting on the topic, at which time Daly notified them of his immediate resignation, which was accepted. The college sent out a press release informing the public of their action; it further stated that staff would receive "tolerance training" as a result, and closed with a message of support for our troops and their mission from the College President.
Incidents like this occur all too regularly, unfortunately all too often the offending instructors remain in their post. Often the school administration backs the professors. Many colleges are funded by states or counties, but even in conservative states professors such as John Daly or Ward Churchill are allowed to flourish. Where the states or counties control the pursestrings, it is important sometimes for state or county government to step in to protect the student; to ensure that both taxpayer and tuition money goes towards useful education, not left-wing indoctrination.
At least the educational environment in Warren County, NJ has become more student-friendly.
posted by hooey @ 12:18 PM
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