Such is the retribution of a Catholic University for a professor who has taken the risk of challenging the established mindset at DePaul on the subject of Israel and the Palestinians.įollow the money, right? Well, at DePaul, it’s oil money, Arab oil money and lots of it:ĭePaul University in Chicago is one of the fastest growing universities in the country. It has gotten so bad that Klocek has even been told not to pray at the campus chapel, which he formerly did regularly during his DePaul teaching stint. The Muslim students later claimed this gesture was obscene.įor his behavior in this brief debate with the students, Klocek, a popular long-time DePaul professor, has lost his job, his health benefits, and has been smeared and humiliated by the University administration. He signaled he was done with the debate by thumbing his chin, meant to indicate, he says, enough already. The students followed Klocek, eager to continue arguing with him.
One student then asked if he taught at DePaul, and if so, what classes. After realizing that the argument needed to end, Klocek started to walk off. He did not know any of the students, and had not had any of them in a class. These are advocacy groups.ĭuring his cafeteria confrontation with the students, Klocek did not identify himself as a professor at the school. That of course, is perfectly understandable and acceptable. Neither group pretends to provide balanced information on the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Klocek says he argued that the materials the groups were disseminating were one-sided. … Klocek, who is Catholic, not Jewish, confronted a group of 8 students manning two tables for the groups Students for Justice in Palestine, and United Muslims Moving Ahead. Here is the precipitating incident, from the Spring of 2005, as reported by the American Thinker: By all accounts, he was a popular teacher and his classes were always full. Klocek’s courses have ranged from Critical Thinking to College Writing to Languages and Cultures of the World. Klocek is guilty of nothing more than expressing pro-Israel views in the face of extremist Palestinian propaganda on Depaul’s campus, including students and non-students proliferating the usual lies and canards about Israel and Rachel Corrie. Evidently Holocaust Denial is ok at Depaul, but not expressing support for Israel.Īfter 14 years of continuous employment at the Chicago-based college, Klocek was suspended with pay last September, and then stayed suspended - this time without pay - through the winter quarter. (“New learning” evidently is not something Depaul confuses with learning, as the events there show.) Klocek’s crime? He was guilty of expressing support for Israel. The immediate target of Depaul’s campaign against political incorrectness was Thomas Klocek, a part-time adjunct professor at DePaul University’s so-called “School for New Learning”. But recently Depaul took a giant step in implementing Orwellism and anti-democratic suppression of political incorrectness on its campus. Until recently the main cause of controversy surrounding Depaul was its insistence on employing notorious anti-Semite Norman Finkelstein as an assistant professor in its political science department. Chronwatch reports:ĭepaul University is a large, if not particularly renowned academically, Catholic college in Chicago. You may remember Klocek as the professor who stopped by the tables of a Muslim student group in the school cafeteria to argue with them about their depiction of Israel and Israelis. Of immediate interest to Gates of Vienna is the ongoing saga of Thomas Klocek at DePaul University in Chicago, which has been followed by FIRE. FIRE’s core mission is to protect the unprotected and to educate the public and communities of concerned Americans about the threats to these rights on our campuses and about the means to preserve them.
These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience-the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. The mission of FIRE is to defend and sustain individual rights at America’s increasingly repressive and partisan colleges and universities. Given the level of intimidation on campus and the academic gospel of correct thinking, they certainly have their hands full. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is a watchdog group that monitors infringement of first amendment rights at today’s colleges.
0 kommentar(er)
