Open Letter to Dr Michael Lovell, President of Marquette University (updated)

UPDATE: Sat 22 Nov 6pm. President Lovell has released a Letter to the MU community. Although it doesn't name names, it is nonetheless a good sign to see this:

We are dedicated to uphold academic freedom and to maintain an environment in which the dignity and worth of each member of our community is respected, especially students. We deplore hatred and abuse directed at a member of our community in any format. Please know that we listen to any member of the campus community who expresses concerns alleging inappropriate behavior. As stated in our harassment policy, the university will not tolerate personal attacks or harassment of or by students, faculty and staff. To be clear, we will take action to address those concerns. ​

Let's thank President Lovell, while adding that we hope clear action is soon forthcoming.

-----

Dr Michael Lovell
President, Marquette University

Dear President Lovell,

I write you today with a matter of some urgency. According to the 6th update to this story, http://dailynous.com/2014/11/18/philosophy-grad-student-target-of-political-smear-campaign/#comments, Cheryl Abbate, a philosophy graduate student at Marquette, has begun receiving hate mail as a result of this Fox News story: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/11/21/teacher-to-student-if-dont-support-gay-marriage-drop-my-class/. 

The harassment Ms Abbate is receiving in inimical to the values not only of American universities in general, but of the Jesuit tradition in particular (speaking as a Loyola University of Chicago graduate), and I ask you to take immediate action in the form of a public statement deploring this harassment and affirming Marquette’s commitment to the welfare of its graduate students. 

As you may be aware, these threats can be traced to the unprofessional behavior of Professor John McAdams of the Political Science department at MU, who, in connivance with a student who provoked a confrontation with Ms Abbate after class, while both surreptitiously taping the conversation and lying about that fact, betrayed a basic commitment to mentorship and guidance of students by blasting Ms Abbate on his blog: http://mu-warrior.blogspot.in/2014/11/marquette-philosophy-instructor-gay.html. 

If I may, I would direct your attention to these comments on an Open Letter I authored on the situation, which has garnered over 200 signatures in a few short days: http://proteviblog.typepad.com/protevi/2014/11/open-letter-in-support-of-cheryl-abbate.html

"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. Bonnie Honig, Professor of Political Science, Brown University."

"I support this letter and am so pleased to see how widespread the response has been. Ms. Abbate deserves no less than any instructor, tenured or otherwise, deserves: due process, a resistance to trying a case in the court of public opinion, respect for her expertise, and the professionalism of her colleagues. The kind of news-baiting in which Professor McAdams has engaged is a disservice to students and faculty alike. I suspect he would not enjoy anyone vilifying him without first attempting to gather the facts in the case. In addition, the student who recorded a conversation without Ms. Abbate's consent, and who denied he was doing so, should be apprised of the law, as well as of general principles of ethics. I am a graduate of a Jesuit institution (Fordham University) and have studied Jesuit history. This developing situation is absolutely not in keeping with rational interpretation of the _Constitutions_ or later interpretations of "Our Way of Proceeding." Kathleen M. Comerford, Department of History, Georgia Southern University” 

As for the behavior of Professor McAdams, I hope that members of your administration, such as Dean Holz or Interim Provost Callahan, will find the time to discuss with him what obligations a decent respect for the trust placed in us as faculty members entails with regard to mentoring graduate students, rather than using them callously and carelessly as a pawn in his political fulminating.

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

Comments

[Brian Leslie]

Dear Dr. Lovell,

As you have been made aware, one of your graduate students, Ms. Abbate, is being criticized for her pedagogy at your university. Prof. McAdams has weighed in with some of the most irresponsible reporting of events that I have ever seen; this is especially churlish of a tenured professor who claims to have political expertise. The story has reached the mainstream (Fox News), unfortunately, based on McAdams's reporting. As I compose this email, comments are appearing on the news page calling for Ms. Abbate's job and disparaging her institution. This is, as we call it in the communication discipline, a "rhetorical exigence."

I hope that I am not the first person to tell you that McAdams is creating a liability (which has both legal and prestige dimensions) to your institution by continuing to disseminate information that a reasonable person would understand is both false and improperly obtained. I hope that you will look into the matter.

Sincerely,

Brian Leslie, MA, ABD
Dept. of Communication Studies
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

[Aaron Ziebart]

President Lovell,
Hello, I am Aaron Ziebart a Junior at the School of Business Administration seeking a degree in Finance. I am emailing you to express my disappointment about the actions taken by administration against free speech on our campus. Initially when I heard about the comments by Cheryl Abbate to the Philosophy class regarding same sex marriage, I thought that her comments failed to promote education and intellectual debate in the classroom, that she was being overly biased. One of the purposes of higher education is to have our preconceived ideas challenged and to refine what we believe. She openly took a stance against classroom dialogue and restricted students from expressing the reasons why they agree or disagree with same sex marriage. Then when I looked into it, there was no statements made by Marquette against what Cheryl said. That was until Professor John McAdams spoke against her actions in one of his blogs. His blog was very reasonable and honest, his criticism of the TA Abbate was very mild and he expressed his disappointment in her failure to teach her students about open dialogue in the classroom. He said her attitude was more like a totalitarian, when she allows some controversial things not to be openly talked about and even expressing her opinion as ultimately correct. Then after his blog the university said that his statements were too critical and that he would be banned a tenured professor. This is outrageous! I read over his blog several times, nothing in there is critical towards her, instead its mildly critical of the way she conducted her classroom. What's more offensive is the way Cheryl Abbate treated her student who opposed her views by saying he was a "homophobic", and by pressing him to drop her class. What she did should have been addressed by administration as wrong and she should have been suspended or fired for what she did. Now instead Professor John McAdams is being banned a tenured professor, and is being stripped of his right to free speech and his personal beliefs. I am disappointed by the way this is being handled. I came to this university to engage in open dialogue because I thought that there would be a lot of open dialogue because this is a Catholic university. I assumed that I could promote my beliefs and challenge what other people say here to improve our way of perceiving the world. I propose that you lift the ban from Professor McAdams and discuss with other faculty how to discipline Abbate for how she treated the students in her classroom and for suppressing the values that are supposed to be held here at Marquette.
Sincerely,
Aaron Ziebart

[John Protevi]

Thank you, Aaron. While this letter best belongs addressed directly to President Lovell and / or on a Marquette student newspaper, I'll publish here as well.