AAUP expresses support for DePaul's Norman Finkelstein: UPDATED

The American Association of University Professors is the primary organization of college academics in the United States.

It claims to be the leading proponent of academic freedom in higher education.

But it's been strangely silent in the the case of Thomas Klocek, the longtime adjunct professor at DePaul was fired following an out-of-classroom discussion with a few Muslim students about Middle Eastern politics.

But in the case of another DePaul professor, Norman G. Finkelstein, the Illinois branch of the AAUP comes just short of endorsing Finkelstein receiving tenure, but it's clear the group sympathises with effort to win tenure.

Leftist professor (Happy May Day!) Peter N. Kirstein of St. Xavier University posted a letter from Leo Welch, the Illinois AAUP president, to DePaul University President Father Dennis Holtschneider on his blog. From that letter:

The affirmative vote of Professor Finkelstein’s departmental colleagues and the College Personnel Committee would indicate that, in their professional judgment, his research, teaching and service have satisfied university requirements for tenure and promotion.

Okay Mr. Welch, you said your piece on Fink. Now, are you going to write a similar letter to Father Holtschneider supporting Klocek?

Welch seems particularly put off by the involvement of Alan M. Dershowitz in the Finkelstein case at DePaul. In Dersh's book, The Case for Peace, the Harvard law professor comes out in support of Klocek.

It's a busy May Day for Kirstein, who received the "honor" of being named in David Horowitz' 2006 book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.

Finkelstein was also one of the 101, as was Ward Churchill. In Kirstein's post above the Finkelstein one, he comes out with both pacifist guns blaring in support of the plagiarist and fabricator who once chaired the University of Colorado's Ethnic Studies Department.

Oh sheesh, I almost forgot about Kirstein: Do you support the effort, Peter, to get Professor Klocek's job back at DePaul. If so, sign here.

UPDATE 5:00PM: I've been advised by someone close to the Klocek case that the Illinois AAUP, in his words, has been "somewhat supportive" of Klocek. Easily it has been more supportive of Finkelstein.

I e-mailed this post to Professor Kirstein at St. Xavier this morning, he has yet to respond, but he's been busy of late, being interviewed for Iranian TV with another nut professor, Richard Falk, lately of Princeton, but now a visiting professor at the University of California Santa Barbara.

He's "honored" in Horowitz' book, too.

Related posts: Fisk on Fink: Robert Fisk joins the Norman Finkelstein tenure debate as DePaul's "perfect storm" gathers strength

Sept 15: Second anniversary of the beginning of the Thomas Klocek affair

Eight DePaul professors sign "Unfire Ward Churchill petition"

Technorati Norman Finkelstein DePaul Chicago Israel מדינת Jews Ward Churchill Dershowitz AAUP Thomas Klocek