Flunked: Guillermo Gonzales and DI Promise More Martyrdom
Backers battle ISU professor’s tenure denial | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
The Discovery Institute says that they have proof that Iowa State University’s denial of tenure of Guillermo Gonzales did involve consideration of his advocacy of “intelligent design” creationism. They promise to press on with appeals, perhaps even starting a lawsuit.
I wonder why they would want to do that. Essentially, they will be walking into another courtroom and asking a judge to hear their arguments that “intelligent design” creationism is a legitimate scientific endeavor. I thought they had just spent the last year and eleven months castigating another judge for the temerity of actually ruling on that very issue, which they had urged him to rule upon in their amicus brief in the case.
It’s one thing to shoot yourself in the foot. It’s quite another to plan to do it again. The DI can’t seem to help itself; it seems to be addicted.
I’ve gotten some feedback that as an “academic freedom” case, the DI’s goal may involve a considerably relaxed standard from what they was the case in an “establishment” case, so maybe they think that’s going to help. However, they are still opening the same door that they’ve argued should have remained closed in KvD, so I think that augments the stance that their whining is just as various people have noted, a bit of bellyaching that their side lost.
Wes – Don’t you know that judges shouldn’t be deciding whether ID is science or not unless they judge that it is? :)
It seems to me the stated reasons (lack of publications originating at ISU, lack of research time on telescopes, lack of supervised degreed students, lack of bringing in grant money) are quite sufficient to deny any professor tenure.
All that can happen now is that Gonzalez will find it hard to find work anywhere. After all, who would want to hire a drama queen who brings in lawyers, issues press releases and has news conferences at the slightest sign of a career downturn – and who has chosen not to distinguish himself academically at his last post to boot? Of course the DI will be delighted to swing the ashes of his career around screaming about the “Darwinists” who “persecuted” him.
A public institution has some limitations on freedom of association. Academic freedom is usually not recognized per se, but rather some claim is made concerning freedom of speech. Tenure decisions are going to be adjudicated on looking at the particulars of the case and trying to figure out how much of each consideration applies. But the DI is deluding themselves if they think going into this that the only issue on the table is “academic freedom”.
I don’t know that Gonzales has a complaint against the DI for using him; he seems to be right there with them whenever they ratchet up some publicity. If he were concerned about the effect, I doubt he would have agreed to be 1/3 of the forthcoming movie, “Expelled”.
Oh I think Gonzalez is flogging the persecution horse fully of his own volition and will no doubt continue to do so. At this point he’s Behe-ed into a career that has veered away from science but is nevertheless lucritive enough. Behe though at least had the good sense to wait until he got tenure before dropping his scientific output to minimal.
And I think the DI not only wants to delude themselves, but others as well into thinking its all about “academic freedom”. And I’m sure some will buy into it too. They always do.
Personally, I think even if their bizarre conspiracy theories are right the college is in the right. They honestly should refuse to give tenure to ID proponents. Take a look at Behe. Lehigh is a good college, but honestly the only thing I think about when I think about Lehigh is how they have that albatross around their necks.
The point of tenure is to make sure they can’t be pressured to temper their work. Behe has been an embarrassment and if you look, he’s stopped publishing work and pretty much is a laughing stock and makes the school look bad. Honestly, the fact that DI is at all pissed is a great sign they made the right call. Gonzales sounds a lot like a trojan horse ready parlay all of the colleges reputation in pushing a non-scientific, non-theory, religious panglossian poppycock in a cheap suit.
If Lehigh would have known what Behe would be, he wouldn’t have gotten tenure.
Wes –
See the update HERE. As expected, it looks like the DI will complain about the negetive reactions to some scientists at ISU to ID and Gonzalez in particular. Of course they will not address Gonzalez’s lack of publications, grants, students and telescope time. The very issues on which he was denied tenure.