Yoo's work for White House could draw UC punishment - San Jose Mercury News
Is there a non-criminal extracurricular activity so reprehensible that it justifies hounding a scholar out of public life?
I don't really know. What if Fred Phelps (of "God Hates Fags" infamy) had somehow gotten tenure in comparative literature prior to his anti-gay crusades, which are clearly legal, and clearly unrelated to his hypothetical field of study? What about the geologists in academia who (this is true) are teaching students despite the fact that they are young-earth creationists and anti-evolution activists? Or what about a biology professor at an unregarded University of Minnesota affiliate who was outspoken on the internet in his criticism of all stripes of theism?
In the end, it seems unjust to let the "bad" guys take refuge behind tenure -- there ought to be some way to rid ourselves of the embarrassments, or punish them for their perfidy. But the risk of letting someone decide what is "bad" is too great, I suppose. Which leads me to conclude, regretfully, than short of criminal convictions, Yoo probably should remain in good standing at UC law.
So really, I should just be rooting for convictions.
A UC Berkeley law professor who provided the Bush administration with a memo justifying torture for terrorists may face academic punishment for his off-campus work.Let me preface this by saying that I don't have a strong feeling about the sanctity of tenure. It seems to me to be a good thing in some respects and a really bad thing in others. Academic freedom, I'm pretty in favor of, on the other hand. I can accept for the sake of argument that Yoo's academic and educational credentials may be sound. In fact, that makes it easier because it throws the matter into sharper relief:[...] "I think this is simply a left-wing version of McCarthyism," said Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor who disagrees strongly with Yoo's views on torture. "He should be judged solely on the merits of his academics." But Berkeley administrators and faculty leaders said they would be concerned about Yoo teaching law students if he were found to have violated ethical or legal standards. Critics have called Yoo a yes-man for President George W. Bush, essentially telling him what he wanted to hear.
Yoo, who has been at Berkeley since 1993 and was tenured in 1999, did not return messages this week.
Is there a non-criminal extracurricular activity so reprehensible that it justifies hounding a scholar out of public life?
I don't really know. What if Fred Phelps (of "God Hates Fags" infamy) had somehow gotten tenure in comparative literature prior to his anti-gay crusades, which are clearly legal, and clearly unrelated to his hypothetical field of study? What about the geologists in academia who (this is true) are teaching students despite the fact that they are young-earth creationists and anti-evolution activists? Or what about a biology professor at an unregarded University of Minnesota affiliate who was outspoken on the internet in his criticism of all stripes of theism?
In the end, it seems unjust to let the "bad" guys take refuge behind tenure -- there ought to be some way to rid ourselves of the embarrassments, or punish them for their perfidy. But the risk of letting someone decide what is "bad" is too great, I suppose. Which leads me to conclude, regretfully, than short of criminal convictions, Yoo probably should remain in good standing at UC law.
So really, I should just be rooting for convictions.
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