DePaul's Finkelstein accused of "threatening and discourteous behavior"

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Hmm...Perhaps I was too easy on Finkelstein--and I'm not a supporter of his--in my "Hogan's Heroes" post last week.

As regular visitors to this blog know, the Catholic university denied tenure to controversial Professor Norman G. Finkelstein, pictured above, in early June.

The Chicago Tribune's Ron Grossman, who is quite knowledgeable about DePaul and the Finkelstein controversy, has an article today that will awake many people from their relaxed Labor Day stupor. The Trib obtained some internal DePaul memos, and they contain bombshells.

(Free Registration is required for the Tribune article.)

Oral and physical confrontations between Finkelstein and university officials began shortly after his tenure denial, according to a memo written by university Provost Helmut Epp.

The provost's memo, dated June 26, alleges that Finkelstein "angrily confronted" other faculty and staff and engaged them with "threatening and discourteous behavior" after being denied tenure.

On three such occasions, campus security officers were called to intervene, according to the provost's memo. When a dean attempted to escape a confrontation by ducking into an elevator, Finkelstein physically tried to keep the door from closing, according to the provost's account

More...

On July 10, according to one newly obtained memo, the political science department informed the provost that Finkelstein's actions "constitute unacceptable and unprofessional behavior." It recommended that Finkelstein be granted "non-residential leave" for the 2007-08 academic year by DePaul, a Catholic university founded by the Vincentian order. Traditionally in academia, a faculty member denied tenure is owed a final year in the classroom.

Finkelstein's reply to the charges was typical, with the exception that he didn't bring in Nazi references--a common Fink tactic used by a man who can arguably be called an anti-Semitic Jew, telling Grossman, "It is rather regrettable that DePaul is carrying on the spirit of Chicago's Al Capone rather than St. Vincent de Paul."

DePaul University, as Grossman writes above, was founded by priests of the Vincentian order, named in honor of St. Vincent de Paul. As for Capone, his ties to DePaul are non-existent to my knowledge, other than the site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre is less than a mile from DePaul's Lincoln Park campus.

Finkelstein was to teach one class for DePaul's upcoming fall quarter, but he's been removed as the course's instructor. He's now threatening to show up anyway to teach, vowing to go to jail and start a hunger strike from there if DePaul prevents him from doing so. DePaul's fall quarter begins on Wednesday.

Jail in Chicago means the notorious Cook County Jail, an unfathomably horrible place for a 53 year-old Jewish professor to be incarcerated in. It's the Rikers Island of the Midwest. My advice to Professor Finkelstein is to avoid jail at all costs.

Meanwhile, Finkelstein's home page on the DePaul web site is still up and running.

I'll be keeping a very close eye on this story. It's newsworthy.

UPDATE: Sept. 4, 8:34 AM CDT

Drunkablog has more.

In a humorous piece, a Norman Finkelstein personal ad has appeared on an Arutz Sheva blog.

Thanks for the link:

IsraPundit

Related posts:

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

Revised: Chomsky coming to Chicago for academic freedom lecture

More DePaul: Finkelstein to teach? Go to jail? Hunger strike?

Happy Birthday, Norman Finkelstein

Thanks for the links:

Solomonia
Meryl Yourish

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