Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Marathon Pundit exclusive: Thomas Klocek files slander lawsuit against DePaul

This suit was just filed this afternoon in Chicago and is a Marathon Pundit exclusive story. Professor Thomas Klocek, who was suspended for defending Israel against the charges of some Palestinian students, has filed a slander lawsuit against DePaul University. More details to follow.

Here is the press release announcing Klocek's lawsuit against DePaul

FREE SPEECH BATTLE AT DePAUL LEADS TO SLANDER LAW SUIT:
UNIVERSITY’S PRESIDENT NAMED AS DEFENDANT


Case part of national trend of campus battles regarding censorship and
“politically incorrect” speech


Chicago…What started out as a disagreement regarding the Middle East at a Student Activities Fair has led to a free speech battle that generated public interest from Israel to London, and now a slander law suit. Today a defamation suit was filed in Illinois’ Cook County Chancery charging that DePaul University and its leadership defamed Professor Thomas Klocek when DePaul publicly characterized arguments he presented to members of Palestinian and Muslim student groups as racist and bigoted. The suit seeks damages against DePaul for maligning Klocek’s integrity and professional competence. The defendants named include: DePaul University; Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul; and Susan Dumbleton, Dean of DePaul’s School for New Learning. The case was assigned to Judge David Donnersberger.

DePaul Sought to Silence Professor

On September 15, 2004 a Student Activities Fair was held at the DePaul Loop Campus. Among the student groups at the fair was the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). When Professor Klocek came to the SJP table, he took a handout that showed an Israeli bulldozer destroying a Palestinian house. A discussion began and Professor Klocek sought to inform the students that a third paradigm, neither Muslim nor Jewish, but Christian, should be considered. Later, one of the students likened the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians to Hitler’s treatment of the Jewish people. Professor Klocek took strong offense at that allegation and challenged it. He quoted an Arab source that concluded that although most Muslims are not terrorists, most of today’s terrorists are Muslims. After the incident, the SJP and United Muslims Moving Ahead complained to Klocek’s Dean, Dr. Susanne Dumbleton, Dean, School for New Learning.

- more -

Page 2- DePaul University Sued for Slander Against Professor

After meeting with Klocek, but not giving him a required hearing as is mandatory by DePaul’s faculty handbook, Dumbleton suspended Klocek with pay. Dumbleton then wrote a letter to The DePaulia that was published on October 8, 2004. In it she publicly criticized the content of Klocek’s comments to the students when she wrote, “No student anywhere should ever have to be concerned that they will be verbally attacked for their religious belief or ethnicity. No one should ever use the role of teacher to demean the ideas of others or insist on the absoluteness of an opinion, much less press erroneous assesertions.”

DePaul’s President Goes National With Libelous Statements Against Klocek

Rev. Dennis Holtschneider contacted media outlets across the country to publish his letter with statements about Klocek’s conduct and even publicly addressed Klocek’s health. In one instance, his letter was published in April 9, 2005 edition of The Rocky Mountain News, where Holtschneider wrote, “Last September, Klocek acted in a belligerent and menacing manner toward students who were passing out literature at a table in the cafeteria. He raised his voice, threw pamphlets at students, pointed his finger near their faces and displayed a gesture interpreted as obscene…. DePaul offered to give Klocek a spring quarter class assignment if he met with the students to apologize for his behavior and if the program director could drop by his class to ensure that the health issues that affected his teaching were resolved. He refused.”

According to David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which wrote to DePaul on Klocek’s behalf, “DePaul has unquestionably violated Professor Klocek’s due process rights, and the university did so because his statements were offensive to the students. While DePaul may now argue that the issue is one of professionalism, its public statements at the time of Klocek’s punishment make it clear that Klocek’s real crime was offending students during an out-of-class discussion of a controversial and emotional topic. Academic freedom cannot survive when professors who engage in debate on controversial topics are subject to administrative punishment without even the most cursory due process.”


- more -

Page 3 - DePaul University Sued for Slander Against Professor

Klocek’s attorney John Mauck said, “When Dean Dumbleton wrote in The DePaulia and characterized that Professor Klocek attacked students’ ‘religious beliefs and ethnicity,’ DePaul hung a Scarlet ‘R’ of racism on a loyal and much loved professor who has served DePaul University for 14 years without complaint. DePaul worked to ruin Klocek’s reputation because of the content of his comments, not his conduct.”

DePaul Case is Part of National Trend of Professors Who Express Views Outside the Mainstream

In recent years a number of cases across the country have surfaced where professors and students, who express views outside the mainstream or have challenged their universities’ speech and ideological policies, are becoming more vocal, including:

Albright College, PA: Assault of Academic Freedom to Criticize Administration
Bennington College, VT: Termination of Professor Without a Hearing
City University of New York, NY: Administration Attempts to Suppress Faculty Speech
Lakeland Community College, OH: Disciplining of Professor for Religion Speech
Rhode Island College, RI: Punishment of Professor for Refusal to Censor Speech
University of Colorado at Boulder, CO: Investigation of Professor for Controversial Essay
Washington University, MO: Mandatory University Viewpoint

According to a statement (complete version follows) released by Professor Thomas Klocek, “The draconian penalties to which I have been subjected are deeply distressing in light of the central issue here: free speech.”


NOTE: Complete suit is available upon request.
# # #


Statement from Professor Klocek

I should like to clarify some points regarding an incident on Sept. 15, 2004, between me and the Students For Justice in Palestine (SJP), at a Student Activities Fair on the Loop campus.

1. There was no shouting, throwing of papers nor threats by anyone.

2. I did not identify myself as a faculty member until one of the SJP students asked me as I was leaving.

3. I did not make an obscene gesture at any time.

4. The University has denied me due process as outlined in the Faculty Handbook by allowing Dean Susanne Dumbleton to suspend me without any hearing or written charges. She also insisted I not meet with the students, despite my offer to conciliate with them following the incident, stating that I was "too passionate" about the
subject(content?)

5. The University has insisted my case concerns conduct, not content. Yet Dean Dumbleton's letter to the De Paulia (Oct. 8, 2005) cites "erroneous assertions" as being sufficient reason to take action against me.
To which of these assertions, then, does she take exception:
a) my disagreement with a SJP student's statement comparing treatment of Palestinians by Israel
with Hitler's treatment of the Jews
b) my assertion that Christians in the Middle East have a right to live there in peace
c) the term Palestinian, prior to 1948, referred to anyone living in those territories, whether Muslim,
Christian or Jew, and that only later did that term become associated with Arabs alone

6. The President of the University has stated that I have hired a publicist because I am seeking a great deal of money from the University. The truth is that I have retained an attorney, John Mauck, to represent my interests. The amount of restitution sought is modest in light of my being called a racist and a religious bigot in print, with attendant adverse consequences for my academic career.

7. SJP was first to bring this matter beyond the University through an email sent by its President, Salma Nassar, on Oct. 5, 2004, to various university and student groups throughout the country.

8. The University now demands (but has not always done so)an apology as a pre-condition to further employment. My question: For what specifically? To date, I have received no written charges. An apology for the content of my speech? For what I said? It would be wrong indeed to censure the students for their ideas and beliefs. However, the University administration, realizing that apologizing for my opinions would amount to an unwarranted censorship of ideas, now asks me to apologize for conduct in which I have not engaged.

9. The draconian penalties to which I have been subjected are deeply distressing in light of the central issue here: free speech.

Thomas E. Klocek
Former Adjunct Professor, School For New Learning, DePaul University

To schedule an interview with Professor Klocek please contact:
Tom Ciesielka at

Thomas Ciesielka
TC Public Relations
333 N. Michigan Ave.
Suite 1020
Chicago, IL 60601
312-422-1333

No comments: