Open Letter in Support of Cheryl Abbate

Dean of the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, Marquette University, Dr. Richard C. Holz, richard.holz@marquette.edu

Interim Provost, Marquette University, Dr. Margaret Faut Callahan, margaret.callahan@marquette.edu.

Dear Dean Holz and Provost Callahan:

I write to express my deep concern about the behavior of Professor McAdams and to offer my support to Ms Abbate over the events reported here: http://dailynous.com/…/philosophy-grad-student-target-of-p…/

The one-sided public attack on a graduate student by a professor over classroom behavior is a threat to academic freedom. It does not appear to me, from reading the blog post of Professor McAdams, that he made any attempt to get Abbate’s side of the story. Instead he took up the motivated report of a student and based an attack on Abbate solely on that student’s testimony. http://mu-warrior.blogspot.in/…/marquette-philosophy-instru…

I hope that you will offer your support to Ms Abbate and take steps to ensure that Professor McAdams learns the rudiments of professional behavior in the future.

Yours respectfully,

John Protevi (PhD, Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago 1990)
Chair, Department of French Studies
Phyllis M Taylor Professor of French Studies
Professor of Philosophy
416 Hodges Hall
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge LA 70803 USA

----

UPDATE: You may co-sign this letter if you wish by commenting to that effect. 

Comments

[Bonnie Honig]

Please add my name to this. Even if everything printed were true and the grad student said and did everything attributed to her ( which I do not grant) this response -- public calling out, exposure to public condemnation, political labeling,-- by a faculty member violates every expectation of graduate training and collegiality. It is a betrayal of the trust invested in faculty to mentor and guide students, not to make of them casualties in larger battles whether inside or outside their institutions.

[Rachel McKinnon]

Please add my name. I'd like to add that Dr. McAdams needs to be held to account for the foreseeable consequence that his actions had viz. the very hateful comments directed towards Cheryl. It's one thing that he took this action to anyone, but that he did so towards a graduate student is particularly reprehensible.

Dr. Rachel McKinnon
Department of Philosophy
College of Charleston

[Kathryn Pogin]

Please consider this my co-signature as well. Publishing a similar attack on even a tenured colleague without making an attempt to seek out the other side of the story at all would be irresponsible and unacceptable; that Cheryl is a graduate student makes this unconcionable.

Kathryn Pogin
Ph.D. Student, Northwestern University

[Corey Wrenn]

I have seen the libelous posts made by a tenured professor at Marquette and the misogynistic harassment Ms. Abbate has received as a consequence and feel that that university should act at this point to protect her as both a student and a woman. As a late stage graduate student in a field known to be very unwelcoming to women in general, her career is clearly in jeopardy from the unsubstantiated comments made by the tenured professor and the conservative news sources he has contacted to support his attack. Perhaps just as important, the harassment she is receiving as a result targets her as a woman, meaning this has now reached the level of a hate crime. Misogynist attacks are orchestrated and are intended to frighten and silence women as a group. It is tactic that is unfortunately very effective. I believe it is the responsibility of the university to protect the safety of minority students and faculty from discriminatory and violent groups.

It appears that the campaign against Ms. Abbate is problematic for a number of reasons, and it concerns me that nothing has been done to protect her or to end the abuse. I hope for the sake of ethics in academia and the safety of women in university systems that Marquette acts and acts quickly.

Corey Lee Wrenn, M.S.
Instructor of Sociology
Colorado State University

[Russell Ford]

Thanks for creating/writing this, John. Please add my name to the letter.

Prof. Russell Ford
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Elmhurst College

[Simon Evnine]

Please add my name.

[Ed kazarian]

Co-signed. I cannot imagine a universe in which McAdams' behavior is anything other than grossly inappropriate and unprofessional. The university should also be deeply concerned about the implications of this episode for academic freedom as well as Ms. Abbate's personal and professional welfare.

Ed Kazarian
Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies
Rowan University

[Mark Alfano]

Please consider this my co-signature.

Mark Alfano
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403

[Kimberly S. Engels]

Please add my name.

Kimberly S. Engels
Marquette University
P.h.D. Candidate and Philosophy Instructor

[Nathan Andersen]

Please add my name.

Nathan Andersen
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Eckerd College

[Ryan Schowen]

Please add my name. I also just sent this letter:

Dear Dean Holz and Provost Callahan,
Doubtless you have learned of the case of Cheryl Abbate, her student, and the unprofessional behavior of Professor McAdams. I write to express strong support of Ms. Abbate and to encourage you to demonstrate your support, as well.

The current case is especially distressing as a graduate student, as a gay man, and as someone raised in a devout Catholic family. I am a doctoral candidate (at a different institution) who studies political and social theory. I study politics because I am interested in who has power, how they wield it over others, and with what ethical consequences.

The current case at your institution cannot be ignored precisely because it demonstrates, in the clearest terms, how those in positions of power (both formal and informal) can bully those who do not have the same power. And let us call Professor McAdams’ behavior by it’s right name: bullying.

Professor McAdams’ behavior is unprofessional and counts as bullying not because not because of the substance of his views on gay rights (which are not even in question), but because it is designed to be both aggressive and intimidating toward a graduate student in a different department, violating the values and traditions of graduate education. In his bullying, Professor McAdams exposes Ms. Abbate’s pedagogy to the risks of public arbitration while taking on none of those risks himself.

Smear campaigns on unofficial campus blogs are easy and juvenile—they are made worse when they recount only one actor’s version of events (tangentially, the recording of that single account is most likely illegal). I encourage you to take steps to ensure the professor understands key tenets of academic freedom, and in so doing represents Marquette in a way befitting its reputation.

Respectfully,
Ryan A. Schowen
Ph.D. Candidate
Public Policy and Social Change
Union Institute and University

[Charles Hermes]

Please add my name to the letter.
Charles Hermes
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
University of Texas--Arlington

[Dawn Fels]

Please add my name: Dawn Fels, Ph.D.

[Ingo Brigandt]

Please add my name:
Ingo Brigandt
Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Biology
Department of Philosophy
University of Alberta

[Noelle McAfee]

Please add my name, too. --Noelle McAfee

[Christopher Arroyo]

Please add my name to this letter.

Dr. Christopher Arroyo
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Providence College

[Janice McLane]

Please add my name to this letter as a co-signatory.

[Thomas Bretz]

Thanks for doing this, and please add my name as well.
Thomas Bretz
PhD student, Loyola University Chicago

[Ann Hetzel Gunkel]

Please add my name. Prof. McAdams is clearly not interested in addressing a student concern, in which case the first and usual course of action would be to contact the instructor. Clearly his blog is a reckless personal and politically motivated attack on perceived "liberal academics." This behavior is utterly unprofessional and reprehensible. I expect MU to protect it's instructors and graduate students from libel and attack. I particularly urge the Provost to intervene regarding the personal safety and professional reputation of women in philosophy. The Professor's public libelous attack on Ms. Abbate is a scandalous affront to the values of a Jesuit university.

Ann Hetzel Gunkel, Ph.D.
(Marquette University, Philosophy BA 1985; Loyola University, Philosophy MA 1987; DePaul University, Philosophy PHD 1994)
Associate Prof. Of Humanities & Cultural Studies
Columbia College Chicago

[Janice McLane]

Please also add my name as a co-signer.

[Joseph Martinez II]

Thanks for creating this post. Please add my name to the letter, as a student who hopes to change the overall ignorance of the Marquette University community I support Abbey.

[Emily Dumler]

Thank you, and please add my name to the list.
Emily Dumler
PhD Candidate; Religion and Society
Princeton Theological Seminary

[Maria Carl]

Please add my name as a co-signer.

Maria T. Carl, Ph.D. Marquette University 1989
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Seattle University

[Jessica Adkins]

Please add my name as a co-signer.

Jessica Adkins
PhD student (philosophy), Saint Louis University

[Aron Edidin]

Thank you. Please add my name.
Aron Edidin

[Beth Cozzolino]

Please add my name
Elizabeth Cozzolino
PhD Student (sociology), The University of Texas at Austin

[Josh]

Please add my name.
Josh Epstein
Assistant Professor of English
Portland State

[Byron Davies]

Please add my name.

Byron Davies
PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow
Harvard University Philosophy Department

[Marisola]

Please add my name in support of Cheryl:

Marisola Xhelili
Philosophy PhD candidate and instructor, Marquette University

[Scott Wilson]

Please add my name.

Scott D. Wilson
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Wright State University
Dayton, OH

[Jounaid]

Jounaid Lyaghfouri
English Undergraduate
University of Toronto at Mississauga

[Thomas Hansberger]

Please add my name.

[Greg Trotter]

Please add my name
Greg Trotter
PhD Student in Philosophy
Marquette University

[Sarah Morice Brubaker]

Thank you for writing this, and please add my name.

Sarah Morice Brubaker
Assistant Professor of Theology
Phillips Theological Semiinary

[Catherine Kemp]

Catherine Kemp
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
John Jay College, City University of New York

[Kate Brelje]

Please add my name.

[Nicholas Sammond, Associate Professor, University of Toronto]

In an historical moment in which university administrations feel empowered to invoke "civility" to silence dissent by tenured faculty (e.g., Stephen Salaita) Marquette University's failure to act to protect the speech and teaching of an adjunct instructor could only be construed as an effort to interfere with academic freedom and the integrity of its faculty. The university should act quickly and firmly to address any unprofessional and potentially slanderous actions by its tenured faculty, and to protect its untenured faculty. I speak as a tenured faculty member at another university, one who would expect my institution to hold me to the same standards were I to err.

[Joe Abisaid]

Joe Abisaid, PhD.

[Mylan Engel Jr.]

Dear Dean Holz and Provost Callahan:

I wholeheartedly support the sentiments expressed in John Protevi's open letter of support for Cheryl Abbate. Ms. Abbate is an asset to your university. Her efforts to create and maintain a positive learning environment for all students in the class are to be applauded. Professor McAdams, on the other hand, is both an embarrassment and a liability to your university, and a disgrace to the profession. His libelous, malicious accusations should be dealt with seriously by your university.

Respectfully,

Mylan Engel Jr.
Professor of Philosophy
Northern Illinois University

[Melissa]

Please add my name. This bullying behavior is a poor reflection of the prestigious reputation Marquette works to maintain and should not be tolerated.
Melissa Post, Doctorate of Physical Therapy

[Ian Werkheiser]

Please add my name as well. This situation brings together a host of problematic issues, from threats to academic freedom, to the attacks from the right on academia and academics, to abuses of those lower in the academic hierarchy by those with relatively more power, to the barriers placed before women in philosophy, to the physical and psychological threats leveled against women by men in this patriarchy, to homophobia, and so depressingly on. The administration MUST act.
Ian Werkheiser
PhD Candidate, Philosophy
Michigan State University

[Tony M. Vinci]

Please add my name to this open letter in support of Cheryl Abbate.

Tony M. Vinci
Assistant Professor, English
Ohio University

[Rodney W. Cupp]

Please add my name to this open letter.

Rodney W. Cupp
Associate Professor
Wayne State College
Wayne, NE

[Matthew Wion]

I do not know Ms. Abbate and I do not know what happened in her course. But as a former Marquette Graduate student in Philosophy I am well aware of McAdams. This vicious attack on a graduate student is reprehensible. To further his right wing agenda McAdams has, without anything close to careful research of the incident, publicly defamed Ms. Abbate and put her at risk both personally and professionally. Marquette University cannot allow this kind of deviant behavior on part of a tenured faculty member. Please add my name.
Dr. Matthew Wion
PhD in Philosophy, Marquette University 2011.

[Emily Waddle]

Please add my name. Professor McAdams' behavior is unprofessional.

Emily Waddle
PhD student, Philosophy
University of Iowa

[sheila arndt]

Please add my name.
Sheila Arndt
PhD Candidate, English
Marquette University

[Alexandr Kazda]

Please add my name, too.
Alexandr Kazda, PhD, Mathematics

[BLS Nelson]

Thanks for this, John. By all means add my name.

Benjamin Nelson
PhD Candidate, Philosophy
University of Waterloo

[Danielle Clapham]

Please add my name and support to this. As a graduate student, Professor McAdam's disregard for professionalism and professional development is particularly distressing. In the spirit of Marquette's Jesuit mission, I find his treatment of Ms. Abbate out of sync with the school's professed belief that "education must encompass the whole person: spiritual and moral as well as intellectual, the heart as well as the mind." While Prof. McAddams may believe himself to be looking out for the moral well-being of the student at hand (and perhaps he was), his conduct towards another student (albeit a graduate student) is in direct conflict with the school's mission.

Danielle K. Clapham, MA
PhD Candidate, Literature
Marquette University

[Mike Butler]

Please add my name as well.

Mike Butler
PhD student, Philosophy
University of Memphis

[Natalie Graceffa]

Please add my name as well; as a Marquette undergraduate student this entire situation is incredibly disheartening to read and I am appalled at the behavior that has been displayed by Professor McAdams and the students involved. I hope for decisive action by Marquette administration as well as support and open-mindedness from students at Marquette.

Natalie Graceffa
Undergraduate Marquette University student, Senior

[Alberto Romo]

Please add my name.

Alberto Bejarano Romo
University of Memphis
Doctoral Student, philosophy

[Mary G. Gainer]

Please add my name to this letter. Graduate students who teach our students are placed in some of the most precarious situations and are often without true recourse. They are not faculty, so they have no tenure or union to support them. They are not done with their degrees, so they may feel making any fuss on their own behalf will jeopardize their work. For a permanent faculty member to act in such a deplorable and unethical way is disgusting. If there were a history of such behavior that were never checked and now students are being harassed, then something has gone terribly awry. This is person has created an unsafe work environment for the doctoral student. Please address these concerns swiftly.
Sincerely,
Mary G. Gainer, PhD
Assistant Professor of English
Point Park University

[Jonathan Kaplan]

Please add my name; I've sent an email to the dean & provost, but want to be on record for this.

[Emanuela Bianchi]

Emanuela Bianchi
Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature
New York University

[Mohammad Umair Khan]

Please add my name.

[Jane Chupick]

Please add my name as well.

[Rosalind Galt]

Please add my name.

Rosalind Galt
Reader in Film Studies
Head of Department of Film Studies
King's College London

[Katharine Jenkins]

Please add my name to this excellent letter.

Katharine Jenkins
PhD Candidate
Department of Philosophy
University of Sheffield

[Dan Cavedon-Taylor]

Signed.

Dr. Dan Cavedon-Taylor
Centre for Philosophical Psychology
University of Antwerp

[Mark Steen]

Signed by me.

-Mark Steen
Bogazici University Philosophy Department
Istanbul, Turkey

[Cathy]

Please add my name as well. This, sadly, is becoming all too common. One sided versions to get attention. Why is an adult blogging? This is Bullying.

Cathy Colwell - Human ( no fancy degree just a person trying to be a good person in a world that increasingly is only about fame.)

[Justin Weinberg]

Please add my name. Thank you.
Justin Weinberg
Associate Professor of Philosophy
University of South Carolina

[M. G. Aune]

Please add my name.

M.G. Aune
Professor, Department of English
California University of Pennsylvania

[Adriel Trott]

Please add my name.

Adriel M. Trott
Byron K. Trippet Asst. Professor of Philosophy
Wabash College

[Jenny Saul]

Mine too.

Jennifer Saul
Head of Department
Department of Philosophy
University of Sheffield
UK

[Rebecca Kukla]

Add me please!

[Shaun Miller]

Please add my name:
Shaun Miller
PhD Student, Philosophy
Marquette University

[Andrea Gammon]

Please add my name.

Andrea Gammon
PhD Researcher, Philosophy
Radboud University, The Netherlands

[Rob Loftis]

Please add my name

Prof. J. Robert Loftis
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Lorain County Community College.

[Ramona Ilea]

Please add my name too.

Ramona Ilea
Associate Professor & Department Chair
Department of Philosophy
Pacific University

[Laura Ruetsche]

Please add my name

Laura Ruetsche
Professor of Philosophy
University of Michigan

[Eva Dadlez]

Please add my name.

Eva Dadlez
Professor
Dept. of Humanities & Philosophy
University of Central Oklahoma

[Tom Brommage]

Please add my name:

Thomas Brommage
Lecturer
Sam Houston State University

[Kelly James Clark]

Please add my name.
Dr. Kelly James Clark
Senior Research Fellow
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Grand Valley State University

[Jane Tram]

Please add my name

Jane M. Tram, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Professional Psychology
Pacific University

[Michael Berube]

And mine--
Michael Berube
Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English
Pennsylvania State University

[Sergio Gallegos]

Please add my name:

Sergio Gallegos
Assistant Professor
Philosophy Department
MSU Denver

[James Newlin]

Please add my name:

James Newlin
Assistant Professor
Webber International University
Babson Park, FL

[Gary Hardcastle]

Please add my name to your letter, John:
Gary Hardcastle
Department of Philosophy
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg, PA 19815

[James Zeigler]

Please add my name:

James Zeigler
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Oklahoma

[Emily Katz]

Please add my name:
Emily Katz
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Michigan State University

[Tiffany Hudson]

Please add my name as well:

Tiffany Hudson
PhD Student
Philosophy Department
Bowling Green State University

[Pia Antolic-Piper]

Please add my name:

Pia Antolic-Piper, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy & Religion
James Madison University

[Chelsea Haramia]

Please add my name.

Chelsea Haramia
Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Spring Hill College

[Carolyn Brighouse]

Please add my name: Carolyn Brighouse, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Occidental College.

[Joseph Rees]

I would like to sign as well.

Joseph Rees
PhD Student
Philosophy Department
Georgetown University

[Susanne Foster]

Please add my signature to this letter.

Susanne Foster
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Marquette University

[Tymm Schmitke]

Please add my name:

Tymm Schmitke
MA Philosophy
University of Guelph

[Jean Keller]

Please add my name:
Jean Keller
Professor of Philosophy
College of St. Benedict/St. John's University

[Alastair Norcross]

Definitely add my name. I am appalled by the treatment Cheryl has received.
Alastair Norcross

[Hasana]

Me too:

Hasana Sharp
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
McGill University

[William Lewis]

Please add my name to this letter as a co-signatory.
William S. Lewis, Chair and Associate Professor of Philosophy
Skidmore College

[Alexander I. Stingl]

You may add my name:
Alexander I. Stingl, PhD
Research Faculty, STS Center DrexelU
Visiting Researcher, Social Science, KasselU
Contract Instructor, College, LeuphanaU

[christian h.]

Please add my signature:

Christian Haesemeyer
Professor of Mathematics
UCLA

[Gaile Pohlhaus]

Please add my name. Thank you.

Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr.
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio

[David Wittenberg]

Please add my name to the letter:

David Wittenberg
Associate Professor
English Department
University of Iowa

[Mary Colleen Willenbring]

Please add my name:

Mary Colleen Willenbring
Assistant Professor of English
Eastern University
St. Davids, PA 19087

[Katy Leedy]

Please add my name
Katy Leedy
PhD Candidate, English
Marquette University

[Shannon Dea]

Thank you for this post. Please add my name.

Shannon Dea
Associate Professor, Philosophy
Director, Women's Studies
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Canada