The State University of Murderers

Lovely little piece today and elsewhere regarding the University of Illinois, a state institution, actually discussing hiring James Kilgore, the convicted murderer and bank robber (and, oh, by the way, a Maoist, but we can't all be perfect) who served an obviously inadequate amount of time in jail.

Before his past was found out, Kilgore was an "adjunct professor" (meaning that he taught some classes; we're frightened to guess on what) at old Illinois.  He was politely asked not to do so after his identity and background were made public.  However, it appears he is trying to become a permanent faculty member there, and groups of people who should know better are trying to get it to happen.

All well and good, no doubt, until some at the University started throwing around the term "academic freedom" as a rationale for why Kilgore and his rap sheet should be allowed to teach children.  That, boys and girls, is when the little gray hairs on the back of my neck started standing up and saying "BS alert, BS alert!"

Setting aside the accent of talking gray neck hairs for a moment, let's hear their point.  "Academic freedom" should not be a flexible concept.  The principle -- and there's nothing sacred about it -- is that professors can research what they want and teach what they want without constraint because of their beliefs.  If you're a philosophy professor and want to teach that communism is wonderful or that Bill Gates is inherently a bad person, or that Nixon was a cuddly kitten or that Obamacare is a great idea, hey, go ahead.  If you can't attract enough students to justify your salary and you're not tenured, you can get canned for that, but not for your beliefs, your teaching or your research.

Academic freedom does not apply to this principle: hiring a murderer to teach college students is a stupid idea, no matter what subject he's going to teach.  Kilgore is not teaching there now, and I daresay there are plenty of people in the USA equally qualified to teach whatever topic he was proposing to teach, who do not have the blood of a 42-year-old mother of four on their hands.  I'd teach those classes myself, but the thought of paying state income tax to a state that even considered hiring this guy would make the little gray hairs say even less pleasant things.  Plus, I don't have a Ph.D.

In the spirit of the "stupid Americans" comment this week, I hope the citizens of the great State of Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, who just this past week voted out a governor who would have blithely let this pass, will rise in one voice.  They should not have to subject their sons and daughters to being in the same classroom with a convicted murderer, no matter what he plans to teach.  As a parent, I would think twice before allowing my child even to apply to such a school.

And if the citizens in fact can prevent that through loud chorus, there will be some little gray hairs wildly applauding.

Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton