On Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:37:17 -0800, Michael Sylvester wrote: >Another prof has been fired at the University of Central Florida. It >happened in the Health Sciences division where the prof refused >to adopt a text for her course- CULTURALLY SENSITIVE >HEALTH CARE.The prof objected to the negative stereotypes >of blacks and other minorities in the text.She is appealing her firing. >Gee,I was not aware that one could be fired for that. For many >years I refused to use the over-rated Psych texts by Myers, >but I was never reprimanded.
Dear Michael, Allow me to make a few points: (1) It is not that anyone doubts the accuracy or veracity of what you say but presumably you obtained the above information from some source. It would be nice if you provided a link to the source(s), such as this Orlando-Sentinel story: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-11-16/news/os-teacher-sues-ucf-racism-text-20101116_1_textbook-lawsuit-lists-grant-heston or from the Knight News website: http://knightnews.com/2010/11/ucf-professor-fired-because-of-offensive-book-according-to-lawsuit/ Here is a link to the offending passages in the textbook in question: http://media.trb.com/media/acrobat/2010-11/57694250.pdf (2) The name of the textbook is "Guide to Culturally Competent Health Care" as identified in the Orlando-Sentinel story. (3) There seems to be some confusion over the use of the term "fired". As the Orlando-Sentinel story points out, Prof. Lugo was on a tenure-track line and her contract was not renewed. Is this being fired? I believe the more neutral phrase in common usage is "seperated from service" which seems to imply that no one is to blame for the termination. It doesn't appear to be the case that Prof. Lugo refused to use the book, her chair heard about it, and fired her on the spot (it is quite unlikely that the chair or dean or whomever could do so without evidence, say, of the professor having commited a felony or other major legal and/or ethical infraction). I am sure that college's lawyer's have their own story to tell. (4) As for the text in question, some passages are provided in the Orlando-Sentinel article which I reproduce below without comment: |•In the third chapter, titled "People of African American Heritage," |authors Larry D. Purnell and Betty J. Paulanka explain that, "Because |significant numbers of African Americans are poor and live in |inner-cities, they tend to concentrate their efforts on day-to-day-survival." | |•The text says that in the black community "being overweight is |seen as positive," asserting that, "It is important to have meat on |one's bones to be able to afford weight loss during times of sickness." | |•The chapter states that African-Americans tend to be loud, |"high-keyed, animated, confrontational and interpersonal." The |text includes "voodoo doctors" among a list of "folk" healthcare |practitioners common to African-American culture. (5) The problem, I infer, is that the text might have been required as part of the nursing curriculum in which it was used and individual instructors may not have any choice in the matter. A similar situation in psychology might be if the decision to use a textbook is made by a departmental committee and the instructor has little say in the matter -- not using the recommended text might be violation of the contract with the instructor and the powers that be may decide to "seperate from service" the individual. So, in closing, please provide link(s) to news sources so that a person can make an independent verification of the claims. Hugs and kisses. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=6562 or send a blank email to leave-6562-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
