One of the great canards of modern conservatism is that liberals rule higher education. Having just been wrongfully terminated from my job at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), I can tell you it just ain't so.
The professorate at many colleges and universities might lean to the left. But professors don't wield much power on college campuses. The halls of academia are ruled by administrators. And by definition, administrators are interested primarily in two things--power and money, not necessarily in that order.
A third interest of college administrators is covering up mistakes, wrongdoing, and other peccadillos that occur on campuses.
Let's see . . . power, greed, coverups. That sounds like the territory usually occupied by conservatives.
Even when college administrators self-identify as progressives, as some of the ones at UAB probably do, they have enough conservative tendencies to ask, "How high?" when a certain monied constituency says, "Jump."
If nothing else, my termination at UAB proves that Alabama Republicans have the ear of those who run the University of Alabama System. Evidence overwhelmingly suggests that I was fired, not because of any misconduct or policy violation, but because I write a blog that is critical of the Bush Justice Department. And I strongly suspect that pressure to fire me either came from, or was approved by, the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama.
Interestingly, I'm not the first progressive UAB employee to get in trouble for writing a blog. In fact, I'm not even the first progressive in my former department to get in trouble for writing a blog:
Doug Gillett, my former colleague, apparently was writing his blog and engaging in other political activities at work--a pretty clear violation of university policy and possibly state law.
UAB's own investigation showed I had never written on my blog at work, and I did not engage in political activity--per the university's own defintion of such.
So why does Doug--who I consider a good friend and an all-around fine fellow--still work at UAB and I do not?
I live in Birmingham, Alabama, and work in higher education. I became interested in justice-related issues after experiencing gross judicial corruption in Alabama state courts. This corruption has a strong political component. The corrupt judges are all Republicans, and the attorney who filed a fraudulent lawsuit against me has strong family ties to the Alabama Republican Party, with indirect connections to national figures such as Karl Rove. In fact, a number of Republican operatives who have played a central role in the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (a Democrat) also have connections to my case.
I am married, with no kids and two Siamese cats. I am the author of the blog Legal Schnauzer. The blog is written in honor of Murphy, our miniature schnauzer (1993-2004)who did so much to help my wife and me survive our nightmarish experience with corrupt judges.
I grew up in Springfield, Missouri, and I am pretty much a lifelong St. Louis Cardinal baseball fan. I've lived in Birmingham for almost 30 years and have adopted the UAB Blazers as my Southern college football and basketball team to follow. Also, follow East Tennessee State basketball.
An avid reader, both fiction and non-fiction. Influential writers on public affairs are Kevin Phillips, Michael Lind, Thomas Edsall, E.J. Dionne, Molly Ivins, and Scott Horton.
Instead it just puts every dumb sucker to sleep. First they tell you you are special and educated. Then they train you to become a mere instrument of precision who thinks the greatest thing is life is some sterile career. Anybody smell another con job?
by
John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1376 comments)
on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 11:10:16 AM
1 comments
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