Saturday, June 09, 2007
Norman Finkelstein is Fired!
Finkelstein canned?
Answer: Any day he gets fired is a Jewish holiday!
From the Web Page of Peter Kirstein (an anti-Semitic Jewish booster of
Norman Finkelstein; Kirstein, by the way, should be next!):
Breaking Story: Finkelstein Supporter also Denied Tenure at DePaul
June 9th, 2007
Sources have indicated that the University Board on Promotion and Tenure
recommended against tenure for Professor Mehrene Larudee, who is a faculty
member in International Studies. She received unanimous support from both
her department, the College personnel committee as well as from Dean
Suchar. She has been publicly outspoken on the Finkelstein case,
indicating her support of Professor Finkelstein in various ways.
One wonders if the University Board on Promotion and Tenure is on a purge
of progressive faculty at DePaul University? Professor Larudee even though
her support was even more extensive than that of Professor Finkelstein, is
denied tenure by DePaul President Holtschneider: Her department was
unanimous; the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee
recommended her for tenure; Dean Chuck Suchar recommended her as well.
I am not privy to the internal documents of the university-wide committee
but one has to be concerned about an egregious denial of due process and
all due consideration of faculty peer review at the department, college
and even college ADMINISTRATIVE level in one case.
Clearly, this sordid situtation casts grave doubt on the capacity of
DePaul and in particular its president and University Board on Promotion
and Tenure to assess qualifications and university-wide promotion and
tenure standards with dispassion, impartiality and justice.
As usual it is the students who suffer as well as the candidates who are
purged from an institution due to a Procrustean-bed notion of
.insititutional fit..
Again, I have not seen the internal documents of the U.B.P.T. but having
covered this situation for months and having access to sources and
documents not made available to the general public, I am concerned grave
academic injustices have been committed at DePaul University.
Posted in Academia/Academic Freedom | No Comments
Chronicle Reports on Finkelstein Tenure Denial
June 8th, 2007
This is the Chronicle of Higher Education Daily News Blog report written
by Jennifer Howard.
Professor Finkelstein is quoted as making this reserved but determined
reaction:
.I played by the rules, and it plainly wasn.t enough to overcome the
political opposition in my speaking out on the Israel-Palestine conflict,.
Mr. Finkelstein said in an interview. .This decision is not going to deter
me from making statements that, so far as I can tell from the judgment of
experts in the field, are sound and factually based..
Posted in Academia/Academic Freedom | No Comments
Latest: DePaul President Informs A.A.U.P. of Finkelstein Tenure Denial
June 8th, 2007
DePaul University President Reverend Dennis H. Holtschneider, in an
unprecedented action, simultaneously notified A.A.U.P. on the same day Dr
Norman G. Finkelstein was denied tenure and promotion to associate
professor. He spoke by telephone to American Association of University
Professors General Secretary Roger Bowen. The president told Dr Bowen he
had expected a .reaction. and was calling as a .courtesy.. Apparently
there was a discussion on the degree of familiarity that the president had
with Professor Finkelstein.s published writings. The president indicated
he had read .some. of his work. The DePaul president in response to an
inquiry, stated he did not know if Dean Chuck Suchar, College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences, who recommended against the granting of tenure, had
read Dr Finkelstein.s work but .expected. that he had.
I have previously reported when I first learned of this tenure process
that Dean Suchar.s opposition to the granting of tenure was based on
tonality and an alleged lack of collegiality in both Dr Finkelstein.s
writings and for apparently a rumoured contemplation of litigation against
the university. I also noted that the dean provided a single example of
alleged scholarly incivility that appeared to use the same misspelled word
as previously used by Harvard Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan
Dershowitz.
Currently the American Association of University Professors is having
their annual meeting in Washington, D.C. This situation is assuredly to
garner great interest at this meeting and possibly will occupy future
deliberations.
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Update: DePaul University Norman G. Finkelstein Case
June 8th, 2007
I have learned that DePaul University President Reverend Dennis H.
Holtschneider, C.M. notified the American Association of University
Professors that he had denied tenure to Professor Finkelstein. He called
them at approximately 12:30 P.M. Eastern Standard Time as a .courtesy..
Perhaps to ward off a possible A.A.U.P. investigation, I understand that
the president stated that he did not reverse any decision of DePaul
University.s Tenure and Promotion Committee for any faculty member.
Therefore I am assuming, with great confidence but consternation, this
university-wide panel did not recommend the granting of tenure to
Professor Finkelstein.
President Holtschneider informed Dr Finkelstein et al. of a denial of
tenure and promotion.
I believe they, the University Tenure and Promotion Committee, voted on
May 11, 2007. DePaul.s handbook requires that candidates be notifed at
each stage of the deliberations and my understanding is that Professor
Finkelstein was not notifed until today. He was to be notified before,
according to the Handbook, the U.T.P.C. decision was sent to the next
stage, the president, by Provost Epp. I have seen the handbook and see
below for relevant excerpts and there appears to be little ambiguity in
the notification-by-stage provisions.
In any event, DePaul.s president is trying to get in front of the curve in
this matter by attempting to indicate he was just following a
university-wide decision. It is not insignificant but I have a feeling
this process is far from over.
The DePaul University handbook describes four stages (department, College,
University Board and President):
.Review of qualifications for promotion and tenure is in four stages. At
each stage:
. The numerical vote of the reviewing body must be reported to all
subsequent levels;
. Minority or other reports will be filed with the next higher level only
when the candidate has had the opportunity to review such reports in order
to respond appropriately. Minority and/or dissenting reports must provide
explicit explanation and rationale;
. All documents considered at any level shall be passed on to subsequent
levels;
. The candidate shall be informed by the departmental chair and/or
academic dean of the decision, numerical vote, and all grounds for the
decision before moving on to the next level;
. Applicants for promotion and/or tenure may continue to the next stage of
deliberation, regardless of the recommendation(s) at any prior stage;
. Any reversal of this decision of a prior level shall be reported
promptly to the department chair and/or academic dean of the prior level
along with the reasons for the reversal.
Posted in Academia/Academic Freedom | No Comments
Developing Story: Norman Finkelstein Denied Tenure at Chicago.s DePaul
University
June 8th, 2007
I have learned that Norman G. Finkelstein on June 8, 2007 has been denied
tenure at DePaul University. Professor Finkelstein, assistant professor of
political science, had been recommended for tenure by his department and
by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences personnel commitee. According
to A.A.U.P. guidelines, Dr Finkelstein will be given a year.s notice and
so can return under contract to DePaul for the 2007-2008 academic year. A
professor may appeal a tenure denial and seek A.A.U.P. support. My hope is
such will be the case and that there will be a Committee A investigation
which could lead to a censure of DePaul University. This is speculation
and is not a prediction of future course of events.
Professor Finkelstein, author of Beyond Chutzpah
The president of DePaul, Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., has released
a four-page statement according to sources.
As this blog and others have chronicled, the main public opponent of
Professor Finkelstein.s application for tenure was Alan M. Dershowitz,
Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard.
Dean Suchar as revealed here, reversed the findings of the majority of the
Political Science Department and his own College.s Personnel Committee.
While I have not seen the statement, I am in a position to confirm the
outcome:
A) I am concerned that an elite university, such as Harvard, can be used
as a redoubt by Mr Dershowitz to destroy possibly a person.s academic
career out of rage over sustained criticism of one.s work.
B) I am concerned that DePaul may be too concerned about public relations
and eschew the greater good in failling to affirm principle and for
acknowledging normal faculty peer review primacy.
C) I am concerned about the broader implications for free speech in
American in which critics of Israel, even sons of holocaust survivors, may
be cashiered due to external forces who wish to silence dissent and debate
within the academy if not the nation at large.
D) I am concerned about the future of Norman Finkelstein, whom I have not
yet met and have not communicated with directly over his application for
promotion and tenure
E) I am concerned that Professor Dershowitz may feel vindicated and
empowered to turn his animosity and savage treatment of a fellow
academician on to others in the academy. He may indeed attempt to cajole
or bully other institutions, without the resources and financial
independence of Harvard, into making personnel decisions that contravene,
in my estimation, due process and the very essence of supporting academic
freedom in this country.
I am deeply saddened and moved by this. I have been through the fire and
am not afraid to fight for what I believe in. Yet I feel right now a sense
of concern that the values that so many of us hold dear and are committed
to are in peril. The powerful in academia should acknowledge they serve
the public and their STUDENTS, not themselves.
For those who wish to consult a rather extensive source of materials on
this case with its now egregious standing, kindly consult my archive.
Posted in Academia/Academic Freedom | No Comments
2.
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/3565
David French on Nazi Norman
3. "Queers" for Terrorism:
http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2004/01/queersforterrorism.php
4. Bigoted Moonbrits:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28660
5. Gay in the Land of Sodom:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122684
6. Where is there more anti-Semitism - in UK or Germany (Dersh)?:
http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2037020
