I don't dispute your point about that: they are trying to get her fired for
First Amendment-protected speech in class. And I agree with you: that's
more important. But: I don't think it's right to say that they don't have
an institutional critique: they do.



Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
[email protected]
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 1:33 PM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 1:06 PM, Robert Naiman <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> But the graduate students who wrote this letter _are_ raising
>> institutional questions. You might not agree with their critique, but that
>> is different from saying that they are not talking about institutions. They
>> are, indisputably, talking about institutions.
>>
>>
>> https://medium.com/@schumaal/what-follows-is-a-letter-collectively-written-by-the-students-currently-enrolled-in-coms-930-at-the-8f4914d4bbd5#.ou1d31sq2
>>
>>
>
> Please don't lose sight of the main objective of these students' actions:
> they are trying to get this instructor fired because she is insufficiently
> sensitive to their feelings on some subjects. Read this for all the ugly
> details:
>
> http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2015/nov/20/ku-communications-prof-who-used-n-word-class-discu/
>
> And oh yeah, the students' open letter cites the notorious *Garcetti v.
> Ceballos *decision in support of their petition.
>
> This is a witch-hunt, with what should be disturbing similarities to what
> a very different interest group did to Steven Salaita. Phyllis Wise says
> "civility", these grad students says "hostile learning environment". The
> effect is the same.
>
>
> -------------------------snip
> Graduate students gathered with other communications faculty and
> administrators for a town hall of their own on Monday, to which Quenette
> was asked not to come.
>
> At the next class meeting, on Tuesday, the graduate students demanded that
> Quenette read aloud their letter, “An Open Letter Calling for the
> Termination of Dr. Andrea Quenette for Racial Discrimination.”
>
> Quenette said she began reading the letter but stopped partway through,
> stating that there were legal implications and that she would not read any
> more.
>
> She then listened as some students read personal statements aloud.
>
> “I feel terrible, upset and sad that I had hurt their feelings and made
> them feel uncomfortable, because I do care about them as people,” Quenette
> said. “I felt frustrated by some of the things written in the letter that I
> don’t remember happening like they described.”
>
> Quenette had prepared a statement of her own to clarify her comments and
> apologize.
>
> But she said several students said they didn’t want to hear her apology.
>
> “Someone said, ‘No, this is over,’ and they all got up and left,” Quenette
> said.
>
> Schumacher said students insisted Quenette read their letter aloud “to
> make sure that she got it.”
>
> She described Quenette as calloused, dismissive and scoffing despite
> “pain” visible on students’ faces. Schumacher said it became clear that
> Quenette still was not respecting the students, so they told her they did
> not want to hear her statement and left.
>
>
>
>
>
> -raghu.
>
>
>
>
>
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