Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Stephen Plaut takes aim at the DePaul administration and Norman Finkelstein in this defense of Thomas Klocek. Cue the DePaul administration with their letter denying their actions had anything to do with Klocek's views and everything to do with his behavior.
DeNial At DePaul: The Thomas Klocek Affair
Klocek’s dismissal is alleged by the administration to be due the fact that, as he walked away from the students in question, he “thumbed his chin” at them. It`s a common Italian expression meaning, “I`m finished, I`m out of here.” But in a special letter to the student newspaper DePaulia, Dean Susanne Dumbleton first apologized for the incident and stated that the instructor was being dealt with in an appropriate manner. The dean then referred to Klocek`s attempt to impose his “erroneous views” on the students. This belied the claim by the university that Klocek’s case is about his supposed attitude, not the content of his statements.
In other words, support for Israel against Arab aggression and terrorism is “erroneous” and not to be tolerated on the DePaul campus...
I read that piece by him a few days ago, a little over the top.
I'm not sure if that's helping anything by attacking Finkelstein and bringing him into this debate.
Not smart and hurts the case. He's unrelated for the most part except to make a surface point perhaps.
I think that's a fair point. I noted Finkelstein's presence in my very first post on the subject, but didn't harp on it for the reasons you state. What's going on now, though, is that the administration's line is that Klocek is being punished purely for behavior, while the critics are saying that's not true--by their own statements there's clearly an element of Klocek being punished for his non-PC views...and if you want to talk about respecting the students' narratives, here's Norman Finkelstein who's about a half step away from being an outright Holocaust denier having no troubles at all.
I agree it's a slight stretch, but the clearer the case is made that Klocek is really being punished for his views the more relevant the connection can be made.
Now, I've been sent multiple links to a Palestinian art exhibit on the campus - another thing I stumbled on early in the search - but I haven't really posted on that since I haven't really seen the connection.
Bringing Normy into it has the heir of "mommy but look what Jonny did"
to put it perhaps crudely. Plus, I think Normy enjoys this and will use it at his next speech.
I think they need to turn up the legal pressure and force the school into a legal confrontation. I don't think they would want that, I mean look at how University of Colorado is chickening out.... and I think their accounts plus the kid's accounts would wither under heavy scrutiny.
Plus, the publicity won't be good for admissions.
WHY THIS ISN'T HAPPENING? I don't know.
Klocek does have a lawyer, but I guess these things take time, and I think the media blitz is a tactic to get the University to play ball. That's why the university is so quick to respond to defend themselves in the press to the charge that it was Klocek's views and not his behavior that they were reacting to. It'll be interesting to watch. I think they're in way too deep to back down without a serious fight.