....and was suspended because his ideas didn't match the PC groupthink found on almost all college campuses today.
On September 15, 2004, Klocek, an adjunct professor at Chicago's DePaul University for 14 years, was walking through a campus cafeteria where a student activities fair was taking place. He noticed a couple of display tables staffed by United Muslims Moving Ahead (UMMA) and the DePaul Chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)
More on Students for Justice in Palestine here, courtesy of Frontpage Magazine's Discover the Network. Incidentally, Frontpage, from David Horowitz on down, has been extremely helpful in getting the word out about Klocek's case.
From their display tables, UMMA and SJP members were handing out inflammatory fliers about the Rachel Corrie incident and other literature comparing Israelis to Nazis. Some of those fliers may still be available here. Klocek questioned the views of the Muslim students. The students were not used to being intellectually challenged in such a matter, so they responded in a predictable fashion: The called him a racist, exaggerated the incident, and complained to the Dean of Klocek's department, Susanne Dumbleton, who promptly suspended the professor.
In an October 1 letter-to-the-editor to the DePaul student newspaper, Dumbleton wrote:
No students 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 assertions. (Bold print emphasis added by me.)
In my conversations with Professor Klocek, he vehemently, yes, vehemently denies attacking the "religious belief or ethnicity" of those students. He did challenge their extremist views, and that's where the trouble started. The "absoluteness of opinion," in my view, belonged to the SJP and UMMA members, not Professor Klocek.
After his speedy suspension, Klocek looked for assistance. Initially, few were interested in helping him. The ACLU, that"protector" of civil liberties, turned down his case. They're too busy, I guess, defending the rights of teen nudist camps.
But the Chicago law firm of Mauck and Baker agreed to take his case.
Few in the mainstream media were interested in the Klocek story. A notable exception was ABC 7 Chicago's Theresa Guiterrez, who covered a March 1 press conference at DePaul's downtown campus about the Klocek case. That story caught my eye, and I blogged it here on Marathon Pundit, and sent my take on the story on to Michelle Malkin, who posted her views that same night.
Later that month, the Chicago Jewish News ran this excellent article which I also blogged on Marathon Pundit.
Then two major blogs picked up the Klocek story: Roger L. Simon and Little Green Footballs.
The seed of a story had escaped DePaul's little garden, and DePaul had a well-deserved angry blogstorm on its hands.
But did DePaul do the right thing and admit they made a mistake? No, the they dug in their heels hoping Klocek--and the controversey--would go away. Hints were dropped about Klocek's alleged health problems. The DePaul administration and its PR hacks made idiotic statements stating something along the lines that the Klocek case was conduct issue, not a free speech case.
The aforementioned Frontpage Magazine wrote many pro-Klocek stories, with Dr. Steven Plaut leading the pack there.
Jay Ambrose of Knight-Ridder began publicizing the case in the mainstream media, writing several pro-Klocek articles such as this one.
AP's Nichole Dizon gave this strong story even more credibility in May. Dizon credited the blogs; up till then, the Klocek free speech case was still a blog-driven story.
In June, Klocek's attorneys filed suit a defamation suit against DePaul.
That's pretty much the story until now. This post will stay on top most of today, and since this is a long and links heavy posting, it's meant to last the whole day.
Free speech is an important part of our society. Unfortunately, there seems to be less of a right of free speech on college campuses.
A few other journalists, organizations, and bloggers have been helpful in supporting the Klocek case. They include FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Richard Baehr of the American Thinker, Pat Curley of Brainster, the Chicago Jewish Star, Sol at Solomonia, Joseph at IsraPundit, Joy Wolfe in England, Joan Peters, Amir at Friends of Micronesia, Michael Medved, David Harsanyi of the Denver Post, Dan Flynn at Flynn Files, Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily, and the many posters at Free Republic.
And a final thanks to the many others out there who've helped out!
Support Free Speech at DePaul University!
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