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Nov. 9
Sending in the Class Monitor
A professor’s alleged remarks in September set off an investigation at Brandeis University that has left some faculty members skeptical, students divided and the class itself monitored — for the time being — by an administrator.
Related stories
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- Out of Work for Doing Extra Work?, July 23
- Killing the Messenger?, July 8
- A Flood of Censure, June 11, 2007
- College Flunks Professor Over Test, Sept. 14, 2006
The incident recalls one this year at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where a law professor was accused of making anti-Hmong comments, and the details he later provided placed those comments in a very different context, one contested by some who brought the complaints in the first place. At Brandeis, a university named for a defender of freedom of expression, the episode took place in a class on Latin American politics, and the statements in question centered around a single word whose connotations have historically caused pain to Mexican Americans.
The word was “wetback,” an insult describing illegal immigrants from Mexico. But as is often the case with powerful words whose use has been intertwined with painful history, it could all boil down to the context of the professor’s utterance — and that context is in dispute.
According to the professor, Donald Hindley, who has taught in the politics department for almost 47 years at the university, the word came during a historical discussion about racism against immigrants. “When Mexicans come north as illegal immigrants, we call them wetbacks,” he told the Brandeis student newspaper, the Justice, in describing his comments. He says he wasn’t saying that’s what they should be called, but what many Americans do call them. (Inside Higher Ed spoke briefly with Hindley, but he did not return subsequent calls for clarification.)
That’s not how some students in the class — at least two — interpreted it. They “individually and independently” approached Steven L. Burg, the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Politics and the chair of the department, “to register serious concern and complaints about things that had been said by professor Donald Hindley in class and in the case of one of the students, directly to the student,” he said. (Since the proceedings of the subsequent investigation are still confidential, it is not certain whether all the students responded to the same incident.)
Now, Hindley had circulated letters addressed to him by Provost Marty Krauss as well as the human resources office, creating what Burg called an “e-mail campaign” against the university’s decision, which found the professor in violation of anti-discrimination policy. The decision mandated that an assistant provost monitor the class for an indefinite but temporary period of time, and it ordered Hindley to complete sensitivity training. About 13 students, or a third of his class, staged a walkout to protest the professor’s treatment, according to the Justice, and the professor is also filing a formal appeal to the decision.
Many of the criticisms of the university’s response have focused on the process behind the investigation itself and the lack of consultation with faculty leaders. Speaking after taking part in a faculty meeting, Burg characterized those involved in the decision as having “acted extremely carefully” and responsibly under the existing rules. At the meeting, however, the Faculty Senate chairman disputed the process itself and questioned whether it was implemented correctly. “We were following the process as we understood it,” Burg said, despite complexities in coordinating anti-discrimination policy as mandated by law and as outlined in the faculty handbook.
“It’s a balancing act, we all recognize it’s a balancing act,” he said, but some faculty members at the meeting displayed “almost knee-jerk suspicions [about the] motivations of the administration.”
After hearing the students’ complaints and taking “careful notes,” Burg said he felt the allegations were severe enough to pass on the concerns to the dean level. (In less serious situations, he might simply direct students back to the faculty member, he said.) The dean then determined that the case should be referred to the human resources department, where the anti-discrimination policy is administered. An official there conducted an inquiry, Burg said, that involved interviews with Hindley as well as with the students. “The whole process is supposed to be confidential,” he said, to protect students from potential retribution and shield accused faculty members from damage to their reputations.
After the investigation determined that the students’ claims were substantive, another series of meetings determined the appropriate actions to take. “The provost issued a letter to Professor Hindley describing the steps being taken in response to this determination, consistent with the university’s moral and legal obligation to take prompt and effective remedial action,” Burg wrote in a statement describing the process. “Professor Hindley chose to make the issue public by reading the letter out to his class and initiating a campaign of e-mails.”
In a comment posted to an editorial on the Justice’s Web site titled “Prof. Hindley deserves better,” a former student wrote, “Through humor and through sarcasm Professor Hindley is able to keep learning exciting. He is a brilliant mind with years of teaching experience. Sometimes his sarcasm did seem on the edge, but at the end of the day, if you had been coming to class regularly, you knew where he was coming from.”
Jonathan Knight, who directs the program in academic freedom and tenure for the American Association of University Professors, said he hadn’t heard of a single instance in which an administrator had been assigned to oversee a professor’s class after allegations of misconduct.
“Any time a complaint is made by a student or someone else that a faculty member has crossed the line in the classroom, that of course potentially raises a question about academic freedom because the obvious next question is whether, in fact, what the professor is alleged to have said is protected under principles of academic freedom,” Knight said. “The principles of academic freedom allow for a good deal of room, as it were, for professors to express themselves in ways that they think appropriate to the particular class and subject.”
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Comments
junkyard dogs in the marketplace of ideas
Having a “monitor” installed for two weeks in some of my public college English classes did wonders for my delivery, my ability to think on my feet in response to student questions, and for the students’ sense of freedom, as this “monitor” furiously took notes on most of whatever was said. And, of course, I could not explain why the stranger was in the room, as I had been warned that that would be inappropriate use of class time, a blatant disruption of the academic process.
Get used to it, folks. (I mean folks who care; the majority of faculty at my institution apparently approve of and support such administrative “oversight.") The pretense of “academic freedom,” for teachers and for students, is finished.
John Bonnell, Professor of English at Macomb Comm. College, at 8:30 am EST on November 9, 2007
Reeducation Camps?
“The decision mandated that an assistant provost monitor the class for an indefinite but temporary period of time, and it ordered Hindley to complete sensitivity training.”
Can anyone explain how “sensitivity training” is different from the “reeducation camps” of China and Cambodia?
John Lobell, Professor at Pratt Institute, at 9:05 am EST on November 9, 2007
And we all wonder why undergraduate education is becoming watered down! Maybe professors should stop teaching about slavery, immigration, race-related issues, gender-related issues, and sexual orientation issues.. We should definitely ignore all these issues and just pretend they didn’t happen... Don’t worry, kids, nobody in the world has EVER said anything mean to anyone else!
Nathan, at 9:20 am EST on November 9, 2007
Got us again!
Looks like the P.C. Police are out in “full-bloom.” I’m intensifying finishing my requiem on common sense!
It is sad when administration = bean-counting and ruling by fear. Alas, I fear it is running rampant among people that should really know better.
Clark Roush, Chair, Division of Fine & Performing Arts at York College, at 9:50 am EST on November 9, 2007
No, we shouldn’t stop teaching about slavery, immigration, race-related issues, gender-related issues, and sexual orientation issues. And NO we shouldn’t ignore all these issues and just pretend they didn’t happen...but what we also shouldn’t do is give people a list of deragatory remarks/words, that’s just spreading the ignorance.
EXAMPLE of Good: Some people called other people deragatory names.
EXAMPLE of Bad: Some people called other people deragatory names AND let me tell you what they were and how they used them.
see the difference?
patricia, at 10:17 am EST on November 9, 2007
In the past, I recollect that now-offensive degrading intolerable term was actually used to describe undocumented workers. It was, I guess, history. Merciful heavens, history is so NOT politically correct. I mean, people were doing things to one another that were SO WRONG, I cannot hardly STAND to even THINK of it much less hear anyone speak OUT LOUD about it. It OFFENDS ME and actually I OBJECT to being offended by just about most of history except the nicer parts (which I don’t know what they are because I am not taking any chances about learning about them because some professor might slip up and use some HIDEOUS WORD like maybe wampum, or redneck, or something, and I could not stand that). I am too sensitive and delicate, intellectually, to tolerate any such offense to my self-esteem (my self-esteem is always teetering on the balance and is likely to fall over backwards), unlike whoever it was in history who built log cabins, the transcontinental railroad, the Erie Canal, sod huts, or fought on either side at Gettysburg.
bystander, at 10:25 am EST on November 9, 2007
Since when is stating a fact in a classroom a matter of “academic freedom?” What’s next, literature professors under investigation because Mark Twain wrote a character referred to as “Nigger Jim?”
A disclaimer shouldn’t be necessary in the classroom, but common sense should be. And that goes for discussions of “academic freedom” as well.
Eh?, at 10:25 am EST on November 9, 2007
Hindley
To the mob that lynched Larry Summers last year, rejoice! There’s a lot more of you out there.
DB Jupiter, Harvard, at 10:45 am EST on November 9, 2007
Sticks and stones,...
Patrica; Are you for real?
Fred Flener, Retired, at 10:45 am EST on November 9, 2007
disagree with patricia
I find it silly that a teacher would say, that, “Yes, indeed, students, people in the past, and some in the present, used and continue to use racist terms for other racial groups.” Naturally, the next question is, what are these words? We’re not to say, “Well, the term ‘wetback’ came from the notion that all illegal immigrants swam the Rio Grande or maybe that they are doing back breaking work in the fields, sweating over work white men and women won’t do.” Frankly, and maybe it’s because I’m a straight, white middle-class male, I don’t see the wrong in this.
My sense is the more we try to pretend these words and thoughts don’t exist and shouldn’t be used makes us look foolish. Sure, I’m not going to allow one student to call another a wet-back and get away with it, but to pretend the word should never be uttered in a classroom is absurd. Can I then not talk about a chink in someone’s armor because it’s so closely related to a racist term? Does context not matter a whit? Can I not use the term niggardly because it sounds so much like you know what, though it has no relationship to it that I’m aware of? I like to think I’m a leftist, and that I care about my students at least to some degree, but I don’t want to be an absurdist when it comes to the use of language.
bradley bleck, instructor at Spokane Falls CC, at 10:45 am EST on November 9, 2007
Criminal Damage to Feelings
None of us were in the class and perhaps, none of us know the history of the instructor, but given the context in the article as written, welcome to 1984, not the year, the book. Academe has fallen so far down the slippery slope of catering to “interests” that serious exploration, debate and purpose of challenging minds is the cost paid. Let’s all just “interact” online in a virtual world where no one has to risk any hurt feelings.
Kevin, Lecturer at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at 10:45 am EST on November 9, 2007
Shocking
I am disturbed to read of these events. For an nadministration to frown on the time honored tradition of acadedmic freedom, and more broadly, freedom of speech shocks the conscience. Censorship in the classroom is the beginning of the end of intellectual discourse.
The adminstrators responsible for this decision should resign, before bringing more discredit to themselves and the university.
Hang in theree Professor...there are many who support you!
Gene Scaramella Dean, Graduate StudiesEllis College of N.Y.I.T.
Gene Scaramella, Dean, Graduate Studies at Ellis College of NYIT, at 11:00 am EST on November 9, 2007
Nothing more than feelings...
A big caveat here would be that we really have no idea if this fellow’s account of the incident is accurate or not. However, I can imagine the incident, as he described it, quite easily happening at my university. And not so much due to politcal correctness, although that’s certainly an issue as well; but more due to a sense I get that our administration believes that the prime indicator of the success or failure of a course is whether or not the students felt that they had a satisfying experience- whether they got their money’s worth. It’s hard to argue about the educational merit of any particular exercise with admins who see that as somehow secondary to fostering a general feeling of satisfaction among the students. And, in that sense, feelings become very important, especially in the absense of more concrete measuring sticks, such as exit exams.
rufus, at 11:30 am EST on November 9, 2007
“Deragatory” (sic)?
Academic freedom, and freedom of expression in general, are among the noblest of values. Moreover, they are absolutely indispensible in any pursuit of knowledge, truth, and understanding. As this story reveals, these values become targets of attack on campus by certain sanctimonious elements who like to wrap themselves in robes that stink of purity.
But to see this freedom of expression being used a means to argue for its curtailment is morally, ethically, and collegially horrifying to me; not to mention highly illogical. Patricia’s lesson is fear, censorship, persecution of those who stand on their academic freedom, and ultimately a betrayal of human potential. Silencing ourselves, refraining from a frank and robust discourse that engages the tough issues of the real world, warts and all, is the death of education.
Currently we seem to have a struggle for the soul of higher education, a struggle between authentic humane values, and an oppressive political agenda that kids itself it means well, thinks it knows better than the rest of us, and will use whatever ends it deems necessary to justify the means. How many times we can turn our heads and pretend we just don’t see this going on?
bpa, at 11:55 am EST on November 9, 2007
Derogatory words
If a student is bothered by something a professor says, would it not be better to first question or challenge the professor herself or himself about the comment? It may be a misunderstanding that can be easily cleared up with no harm to anyone. On the other hand, if the professor is determined to be genuinely offensive, then it is appropriate to bring the attention to higher authorities, starting with the chairman, until the student gets satisfaction that the injustice will be adressed, at which point the complaints should stop.
Dr. Mario D. Mazzarella, at 11:55 am EST on November 9, 2007
It’s not easy being...
The suggestion that a student should consult and complain to the professor makes sense to me, but then I am/was a professor. Students are very ambivalent about anything like confrontation, usually. But I recall on one occasion giving a broad comparative talk about India and the United States after their respective winning of independence from colonial rule. It was to a general audience I had no other connection with, and whom I had never encountered before. One person came up to me afterward and tore into me for saying that one difference between 1947 and 1783 was that North America at that time was a (and I quote) “relatively lightly populated land” facing a situation of becoming the destination of a new settlement by outsiders” whereas India was, by and large,overdeveloped, densely populated and equipped with a complex history.” I should have said complex sub-continental history, but nevermind. I was skewered for “ignoring the millions and millions of American Indians and their advanced civilizations that were destroyed and ignored by white America.” Also the party objected to my use of a term “stone age” in connection with juxtapositions of various levels of human technology in pre-modern India. I tried to explain the context of my usage, but the person basically seemed to be of the view that if I could say such things I was unredeemably racist, and I believe a complaint was entered to the organizers of the talk. Oh by the way, this person was a school teacher.
So, just as people don’t know what they don’t know, people don’t give up things they don’t want to give up. It’s an imperfect world... (at least I hope that is the case)
FFC
Frank Conlon, Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, at 1:00 pm EST on November 9, 2007
Brandeis Motto
Two thoughts: The Brandeis motto on it’s seal is:Truth Even Unto It’s Inner Most Parts.
Phillip Roth fictionally portayal of the professor who gets into trouble for classroom comments in The Human Stain seem appropriate
Henry Tischler, Professor of Sociology at Framingham State College, at 1:00 pm EST on November 9, 2007
rampant elitism aka academic freedom
To disclaimers:How about a class in basic respect, something that I’ve found is woefully lacking in many who hold doctoral degrees. Perhaps the nation’s institutions should be teaching social skills right up there with research skills.
Teacher, analyst, at 1:10 pm EST on November 9, 2007
I am apparently not being socialized into elitism correctly
So, and let me get this straight, earning a Ph.D. gives you the right to open your mouth and blabber without bothering to think before you do so?
How about we extend the virtues of academic freedom to EVERYONE who works at or attends and institution of higher education, particularly staff. That way, I can tell about 60% of the faculty here what I really think of them and their own unique version of the victim mentality.
No wonder your students don’t bother to come to class.
Apparently learning stops after one earns a PhD. In that case, I’d rather not pursue one.
absolutely stunned, analyst, at 1:30 pm EST on November 9, 2007
The Student is always right
Even at Brandeis? From what I can gather about this situation from the story here, everything depends upon the audience, context and tone of the professor’s statement. For a not-too-bright student who listens selectively and attends irregularly, “we call them wetbacks” could easily mean “this is the official dictionary definition of Mexican immigrants which you are expected to know and use in this class.” For a student who had paid attention and attended regularly, the tone and context might give the same words the very different meaning of informing students of the way a derogatory name came into use. The real problem is with administrators who assume that the student is always right — after all, if there is a misunderstanding it must be the teacher’s fault. Hence, this senior professor now must undergo sensitivity training. What makes me particularly angry is the political and personal dimension of this garbage — a professor is usually not punished like this without someone out to get him/her.
Angelo, Professor at Liberal Arts College, at 1:30 pm EST on November 9, 2007
“Absolutely Stunned”
You didn’t read the article very carefully, I’m afraid. There was no questioning of other witnesses, no one knows if the professor used the term or merely discussed it (nor whether the professor used it in order to answer a question about it). Nevertheless he has been punished and humiliated. It’s a pretty big leap, from having no idea what was said or in what context to seeing professors given the right to use hate speech in the classroom! Some Googling, by the way, shows that this professor has been an activist and an anti-colonialist professor of Latin American politics at his university for decades.
Isobel Clinton, at 7:30 pm EST on November 9, 2007
Context, anyone?
There are a number of contexts that need to be understood in this sad and sorry case: (1) The history of a professor who has taught at the same institution for 47 years, has never been called to account for any similar behavior in all those years, and who has had innumerable students over those years who can attest to the fact that he is anything BUT a racist. I’m one of those students; Prof. Hindley taught me Latin American politics nearly 40 years ago and I’ve been in touch with him ever since; (2) the history of an administration that has been looking for any pretext to force a serious critic of many of their policies out of the university. This isn’t a case of the PC-police who are out of control — this case has all the earmarks of an administration which is seeking to silence a faculty member who has been a thorn in their side. If a student came to me as chair with a similar complaint — and they have — my first step would be to talk with the faculty member who was so charged and get as full a story as possible. I would also try to talk to non-complaining students to see what perspectives they had to offer. I wouldn’t “pass on the concerns” to the dean as a FIRST step; (4) finally, the administration’s choice of oversight is intended to be embarrassing, not “remedial". If the administration finally discovered a problem 47 years into a contract and wanted to correct it, there are more effective and collegial ways than having a dean babysit your classes. What’s next, forcing faculty members to wear big red “R’s” on their chest?
Prof. Hindley has every right to make this public. The alternative is to allow the administration to violate faculty rights behind a wall of silence.
Steven Volk, Professor of History at Oberlin College, at 7:30 pm EST on November 9, 2007
Rapport
If my students didn’t understand me and I didn’t understand them, I dare say that we would all be before review panels often. The “context” here is personal as well as intellectual. We have to recognize irony, parody, “invisible quotations,” tones—all sorts of rhetorical indirections that make up the full contexts of our exchanges, of complex relations between a teacher and students that enjoy each other’s company and trust each other’s decency as well as wit and intellectual play. Otherwise, I would not be teaching after retirement; it would not be fun and exciting. It would also not be good teaching
David, USC, at 8:50 pm EST on November 9, 2007
Sending in the Class Monitor
Sad that these students who should have known better went straight to the Chair of the Department rather than to the professor to voice complaints. Even sadder, the Chair rather then settle the matter with the faculty member would choose to escalate it to the dean’s level. In the article, Burg is quote as saying, “after hearing the students’ complaints and taking “careful notes,” Burg said he felt the allegations were severe enough to pass on the concerns to the dean level. (In less serious situations, he might simply direct students back to the faculty member, he said.)”. Was the Professor in question asked his side of the story before going to the dean’s level? Even here in the Middle East where students love to go straight to the Rector, Chancellor or University President, we try to keep things on the “Chair” level.
I will not question the term “academic freedom", as seems there isn’t any in the States. What happened to those lively discussions in and out of class where things were said that might not be PC but were factual?
Has US higher education actually gotten to the point where things can be taken out of context and used to possibily destory a professor’s career?
Erika, at 11:00 am EST on November 10, 2007
Patricia, are you serious?
Morality is when one acts according to one’s reason, and does not violate it.
Moralism is when one makes “good” and “bad” categories out of ideas that are usually unexamined.
Sadly, statements like yours are all too common. They show ignorance and a belief that thinking like everyone else is more important than thinking for yourself.
Chris, Patricia?, at 12:50 pm EST on November 10, 2007
“Morality is when one acts according to one’s reason, and does not violate it.”
I have known many felons — many of whom were violent — who acted according to their reason and did not violate it. Is that really morality?
JBM, at 6:10 pm EST on November 10, 2007
Tell It Like It Is!
What is wrong with you guys? ... you can tell this tale with complete accuracy and honesty ... and without resorting to Professor Hindley’s extremely repugnant vocabulary.
“Beginning soon after World War II and continuing until this day, truly heroic individuals crossed the geographically, socially, and politically indefensible boundary between Mexico and the United States, migrating from south to north, thus defying the unconstitutional statutes of the United States and its so-called Rule of Law and greatly enriching the culture of the country to the north. These ambassadors of freedom were unfairly prosecuted by the United States despite their quite spectacular contributions to its economic well-being.
The crusade by these Mexican heroes of civil disobedience resembled, more than anything else, the people-of-color crusades of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the quiet energy of the colorful Mahatma Gandhi. While it was the intention of self-centered and self-serving American politicians to reduce the lives of these stalwarts of immigrative innovation to that of abject economic, intellectual, and cultural poverty, they persevered in the face of almost overwhelming odds to become the largest “minority in the U.S. and, one hopes, to soon replace Caucasians as the ethnic majority in America.”
All I can say is I wish I had an administration-sponsored class monitor to whom I could direct questions when none of my students could correctly answer my questions.
Frizbane Manley, at 6:10 pm EST on November 10, 2007
Is the word that offensive?
I’ve heard the word “wetback” for a number of decades. It’s not an elegant word, but when did it become as offensive as indicated in this news?
Henry, Prof. Emeritus, at 9:35 pm EST on November 10, 2007
Educational institutions are no longer the bastions of academic freedom that they once were. They have become businesses. The student is a customer and in this litigious society the customer’s complaints must be addressed, sometimes to a fault. The faculty member is merely an employee and to many adiministrators an employee who can easily be replaced. It’s sad, really. Education is being replaced by a search for the acceptible. I do not know if the professor at Brandeis was in the right or in the wrong. But I do know that the issue is becoming systemic to the detriment of higher education.
John Rossi, at 10:30 am EST on November 12, 2007
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Classroom vocabulary
Education in a mine field!
Truth, freedom of speech, and education in general are diminished when the victim mentality rules.
Do we need a course in disclaimers?
Careful, at 8:00 am EST on November 9, 2007