"... and denounced a student group, the Black Justice League, as 'a small local terrorist organization' because of its tactics in pushing for institutional changes. The remarks [were]... reviled by some... and lionized by others.... And they sent up a flare that led to scrutiny of other aspects of his life, including his conduct with female students. In the latest fallout from that debate, Princeton’s president has recommended dismissing Dr. Katz... for what a university report says was his failure to be totally forthcoming about a sexual relationship with a student 15 years ago.... Princeton already knew about her. The university had started an investigation after it learned of the relationship in late 2017, about ten years after it happened, and Dr. Katz confessed to a consensual affair. He was quietly suspended without pay for a year.... The woman in the sexual relationship did not cooperate with the original Princeton investigation. But after [a student newspaper report on Dr. Katz], she filed a formal complaint that led the administration to open a new investigation, which it said was looking at new issues rather than revisiting old violations.... Dr. Katz’s wife, Solveig Gold, said he had lost many friends over the controversy.... Ms. Gold, 27, who is finishing her Ph.D. in classics at the University of Cambridge, graduated from Princeton in 2017. She said that she had been his student, but that there was no romantic relationship between them at the time. They married in July 2021."
Obviously, it is terribly wrong to fire him for his writings, and it seems that the sexual material is being used as a cover. Sexual harassment is an important matter, but that's all the more reason not to use it dishonestly. There may be some new information about the 15-year-old case, but the matter was dealt with at the time. Would the University going back to other old cases and fire tenured professors? The answer can't be — only when it hates what they are writing.
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29 comments:
Joshua is a real Tom Katz
It's my 45th Reunion at Princeton this weekend, and I'm not there. I've made 42 of 45 (we have them every year), even driving all the way from Madison when I lived there. The key reason is the spineless, woke President who grovels to every pressure group, and they all know that they can bend him to their will. It's a shame, but the most loyal alumni group in the world will possibly fade away because they don't recognize anymore the university the attended, loved, and gave millions to.
Oh yes it can
same strategy was used by Harvard to fire a black professor who strayed off the plantation.
That’s led him to observations that were a bit unsettling to higher-education orthodoxies. For example, Fryer found that the academic achievement gap accelerates between kindergarten and eighth grade. He also found that, controlling for a few variables, the initial disparity disappeared.
“Black kindergartners and white kindergartners with similar socioeconomic backgrounds” achieved at similar levels. “Adjusting the data for the effects of socioeconomic status reduces the estimated racial gaps in test scores by more than 40% in math and more than 66% in reading.”
Can't have that. Gin up a sexual harrasment claim.
Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime.
--Lavrenty Beria
“Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” - Lavrentiy Beria, head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police in the Soviet Union. These woke institutions of (allegedly) higher learning are becoming very Stalinist and absolutely hate free speech and freedom of speech, especially when it goes against their ideals. Even worse, universities are training the future Stalins and Berias who will try to gut the US Constitution and the freedoms that it guarantees that these wokesters so despise.
Witch hunts, warlock trials, and diversity [dogma] breeds adversity.
The administrators of Princeton University are really smart!
There are precedents. Clinton, Russia, and Trump impeachments. Whitmer, planned parent/hood, and an FBI directed abduction plot. Cuomo, planned parent/hood, and #MeToo soon forgotten. Obama, world Springs, and systemic diversity. Biden, energy, affordability, availability, and Slavic Spring in progress. Abolitionists, wicked solution, neighborhood incursions and daily brayers (sic). Democracy is aborted with an act of legerdemain, demos-cracy is forgotten under a veil... Princeton is steering with purpose.
Lord of the Flies was a book I did not bother reading because I already understood it.
The destructive hateful powerful people at Princeton, of all places, are the bad guys here.
I assume there were bad creatures in the Lord of the Flies, but I did not read it, because I already knew what selfish people are capable of.
"The answer can't be — only when it hates what they are writing."
But it is.
Reminds me of a fictional town, in Brett Weinstein imagination, that set the speed limit so low, that practically everybody broke it. But, because the town didn't have the recourses to enforce it equally, it opened up the opportunity to enforce it arbitrarily. Issue summons to the deplorables.
Gilbert, we are in the same Princeton class (!) and I’m not there this weekend either, but I’ve skipped 42 of 45. This most recent debacle makes staying home even easier.
Idle hands are the devil’s playground. Fire 90% of administrative staff (ratios should be roughly 1 administrator per 10 instructors). End the absurd concept of “in loco parentis” and eliminate every department that doesn’t contribute to the literal practical function of running a university. Dissolve the education department and most of the civil rights division so that universities have the freedom to focus on education. This simple program will have the additional salutary effect of enabling universities to cut tuition in half.
stephen cooper said...Lord of the Flies was a book I did not bother reading because I already understood it.
Lord of the Flies is second rate fantasy fiction written by a left-wing radical. It has no application to the real world. Ironically, at about the time the book was being written, a real lord of the flies was playing out. It went differently.
Some days blogger will let you embed links. Some days it doesn’t. Today is one of those days.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months
Coddled mediocrities rule university administration...and I speak as a potential member of the donor class.
Isn’t this how the government revisited the Paul Manafort case after he worked for Trump, and Podesta walked free?
Tim Maguire. Yes, I remember that article about the boys. To summarize, someone looked through history to find actual situations in which young people were stranded to see if they mimicked Lord of the Flies. In seems in real life they did the opposite of the book. They cooperated and took care of each other. The truth reinforces the general tenet that if you leave people alone they will tend to get along. The exact opposite of our governmental philosophy and it’s tendency to get in everyone’s face.
No statute of limitations on words or conduct of Princeton employees who fall into disfavor. Repeat investigations, reopened files, “just a few more questions.” Waiting for the shoe to drop while your counsel grows old and your witnesses (if any you have) forget and move away.
The process is the punishment.
I hope Professor Katz hires a first class employment trial lawyer because I don’t think a jury will have a hard time figuring out what Princeton’s actual motive was. And that’s without discovery, which can only be bad for Princeton.
@Mrs.X:
How delightful to meet another '77er on Althouse. If you have access to the online Reunions class directory and search for "Wisconsin", I'm the classmate who met his wife there. A locomotive in your name @ 2 p.m. when the P-rade kicks off.
So no double jeopardy or statute of limitations at the University level? Any nods to due process or fairness at all?
"Obviously, it is terribly wrong to fire him for his writings"
Not obvious to all the Democrat voters.
Not obvious enough for Althouse to vote for Trump to oppose this PC crap.
Is it obvious enough for Ann to vote Republican in 2022?
Probably not. Because all votes are packages, and many voters are multi-issue folk - tho it's easier to just Always Vote for (my side).
Trump was elected in 2016 by pro-life Evangelicals who disapproved of his personality, but wanted pro-life judges rather than the usual Democratic pro-abortion judges.
And just like Musk, an old ( in this case true ) case that was already settled is being drug up to damage a political opponent.
Disgusting human beings.
Always press charges, always sue.
How should a university handle new information establishing that a faculty member obstructed a prior (even old) sex-harassment investigation, opened after a student filed a complaint against him? Assume the faculty member avoided what we agree would have been a justified termination only because he successfully concealed or squelched inculpating facts from surfacing.
The answer can't be — only when it hates what they are writing.
The answer can't not be that. To the barricades!
Obviously, it is terribly wrong to fire him for his writings
#firealthousenow
On that we agree. It can't be only because administrators hate his writing. But what if they hate his writing AND they learn new facts--perhaps discovered through no effort of their own-- that would have merited his termination following the prior investigation, the soundness of which he culpably undermined?
John Carlson @ 11:41 and 12:25: I must be missing something; your hypothetical really predetermines the only reasonable answer. If the guy corrupted its previous investigatory process to escape a finding of guilt, then he should be pursued and punished no matter how much time has passed. Equity (and the institution’s own health and credibility) demand that this hidden ulcer be drained.
But is your predicate true? Did the guy in fact meddle with the earlier investigation and/or adjudication? Materially? Provably so? And how strong is the evidence that later comes to light to suggest this tampering? Why was it hidden and by whom? Was the school incompetent or even complicit (nod, nod, wink, wink) the first time around?
So many facts are assumed away.
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