By Professor Doom
Having been part
of, and victimized by, the kangaroo campus court system, I nevertheless am
perpetually amazed at just how bizarrely it runs, from how piffling the
“crimes” are that merit convictions, to how far reaching the penalties can be.
Of particular
interest to the kangaroo court system are sex related cases. Before moving on,
I suppose I should explain my own history of sexual harassment, as I was
accused one time (I was cleared of the charges, however):
Me: “You
look quite made up today.”
--a student
walked into class late, making a
bit of a show of it. She was wearing quite a
bit of makeup. Yes, I was investigated for sexual harassment based on this one
comment. Admin could have destroyed me over this, but at the time I was playing
ball, and so received a pass.
The latest
insanity comes from the University of Kentucky. Like many institutions, the
school is on a something of a witch hunt when it comes to sexual harassment:
“…university
looked into 57 sexual harassment and discrimination complaints about employees
from 2011 to 2016, finding enough evidence to recommend firing the employee
about 40 percent of the time.”
A charge of
sexual harassment is a great way for admin (who runs the entire kangaroo
system) to get rid of faculty they don’t like (i.e., faculty with any
integrity).
Let’s look at
what a recent case:
Now, I’m
sure the charges were piled on here, but I want to focus on this one. The man
was literally thousands of miles away from campus, singing a song in China, at
a public event, a song which is played on the radio regularly.
Ok, it wasn’t an
identical song, as he changed some of the words to reflect China (using Chinese
locations instead of states, for example), but that’s beside the point. The
kangaroo court’s ruling on this issue would be enough to nullify any other
rulings the court ever made, in a sane world:
“ruled that
the song ‘California Girls’ included ‘language of a sexual nature’ and was
somehow offensive, though no victims were identified.”
It really is nuts
working in higher education. Things you say off campus, things said every day
on the radio, can be enough to get you fired, even if nobody complains about
it, or even makes the slightest claim of being harmed by what you said.
Is it any wonder
why most faculty just keep their heads down and, if they dare to comment at all
about the madness of higher education, they do so anonymously?
Part of what
makes the kangaroo system so foul is the defendants generally have no idea of
the machinations being wielded against them:
Ryan said
the university’s three-month investigation of his case revealed no student
complaints, and that he’s never faced a complaint of a sexual nature from a
student in 30 years of teaching. When he sent an email to administrators asking
to know the exact complaints against him, he said, “My message was turned into
an open-records request by UK’s legal office. A few days later I received a
two-page letter denying my request.”
Imagine: a 30 year
career besmirched, if not outright ruined, based on singing a Top 40 hit in a
different country…that nobody complained about. Yes, there could be more to it,
but this kangaroo system doesn’t provide for the victim knowing the exact
nature of the charges.
I know our public
system of justice has issues, but I assure the gentle reader it is superior in
every way to the campus court system.
Having been found
guilty, punishment was meted out:
“Despite
not knowing the exact charges against him, Buck said he was, as punishment,
banned from receiving international travel funds and stripped of a teaching
award worth thousands of dollars. When he asked about due process, the provost
allegedly said that because there is no constitutional right to represent
Kentucky abroad or teach a particular class, the university didn’t owe him any.”
I encourage the
gentle reader to consider the above paragraph: the man is convicted on charges,
some flimsy, some secret, and punished based on those convictions. When asked
about “due process,” admin basically laughs in his face.
Again, I saw the like a few times
when I was at a skeezy community college, but I understand the gentle reader
has little reason to believe a simple blogger such as myself. Thus, I feel
compelled to list documented cases of sleaziness that were little different
from what I’ve seen with my own eyes, many times. Across the country, this sort
of thing goes on regularly. Most faculty are too disenfranchised, too
impoverished, to do anything about it. In my years of higher education, I’ve
been told about the site I’m getting this information from exactly one time,
privately, by another faculty member.
I guess I should
mention the University’s side to this:
“..Blanton
said that faculty members shared “deep concerns” about Ryan’s conduct and both
Jilin and Shanghai Universities also had complained about him. “Our Title IX
office investigated the complaints at length and interviewed Ryan as part of
the investigation, as well as the faculty who accompanied him,” he wrote. “The
faculty were unanimous in their complaints and their concerns, in which a
preponderance of evidence concluded that he engaged in ‘inappropriate touching’
and ‘language of a sexual nature.’”
Wonderful! It
should be a simple matter to get those complaints from the other universities.
None have been provided, of course.
I love the
“unanimous” complaints here. I had such a charge leveled at me, only to have
several of the “unanimous” committee members tell me, off the record, that they
disagreed with the ruling. Trust me, the university isn’t particularly special
in its confusion about what the word “unanimous” means.
Now, when I’ve
covered these cases before, the administration is always perfectly confident
they are in the right. The professor can try to get recourse in the system, but
it’s not going to work there because admin holds all the cards in the kangaroo
system. They are judge, jury, executioner, and they do it all in secret without
the professor even knowing a trial regarding his future ever happened.
So, my advice to
the professor is simple: waste no further time trying to get justice in the
campus kangaroo court system. Take them to “real” court. It’s worked
well before. Honest,
that’s the way to go.
Or keep asking
admin for due process and continue to have them laugh in your face.
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