Marathon Pundit exclusive: John J. Miller of the National Review on the Klocek case

This will be in the next print edition of the National Review. John J. Miller offers his take on the free speech struggle facing suspended DePaul Professor Thomas Klocek.

NATIONAL REVIEW, OCT. 24, 2005 ISSUE NR SPECIAL: EDUCATION 2005

Pariahs, Martyrs, and Fighters Back Conservative professors in America

Finding himself on the wrong side of the Israel-Palestine divide, and with the administration refusing to show even a flicker of sympathy, Klocek didn't know how to respond. He just wanted his job back. He had taught at DePaul for nearly 15 years as an adjunct member of the faculty, and never in this time, according to the school's administration, had anybody complained about his behavior. But now Dumbleton was finding all kinds of reasons to label him persona non grata. In a November 10 letter, for example, she accused Klocek of being "occasionally disoriented or unfocused," perhaps owing to a "changing regimen of medication." (Dumbleton's Ph.D. is in English, not psychiatry.) She indicated that Klocek could teach one more class, but only if it were monitored, a condition that an increasingly desperate Klocek was willing to accept. Some time later, however, Dumbleton seemed to discourage it. "She told me she couldn't guarantee the behavior of the students," says Klocek. "She was basically threatening me with protests." He decided against returning to DePaul, and in June he filed a lawsuit against his former employers. "This is one of the most brazen violations of academic freedom that I've seen," says David French of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a watchdog group.

John J. Miller writes not only about Thomas Klocek, but also of the difficulties faced by others who've express something outside of the hard-Left political groupthink.

Miller is one of the more popular writers for National Review, and I'm sure this article will make it on to National Review Online. Here is a collection of his recent NR and NRO articles.

UPDATE 9:15PM John J. Miller is the co-author (with Mark Molesky) of the book "Our Oldest Enemy-A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France." I read the book last year, and their reasoning is quite solid. Click on the link on the lower left hand side to learn more about this terrific book.