Current Finkelstein Academic Contract Voided By DePaul ?

A front-page story in today’s Chicago Tribune, “DePaul pulls plug on controversial professor” by Ron Grossman, relates that political science professor, Norman Finkelstein, who previously was denied tenure after a controversial set of events, ( See “Tenure Denial for ... Lack of Collegiality?” , under date: June 21, 2007 ), has also had his current class cancelled and had access to an on-campus office removed.

While the DePaul law school faculty had no role in Finkelstein’s tenure process, Professor Alan Dreshowitz from the Harvard University Law School, had sent the members of the DePaul law faculty, the same packet of information that he sent to the political science faculty.An April 2007 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education states that :

“Last fall, with Mr. Finkelstein up for tenure, Mr. Dershowitz sent the DePaul law-school faculty and members of the political-science department what he described, in a letter dated October 3, as a "dossier of Norman Finkelstein's most egregious academic sins, and especially his outright lies, misquotations, and distortions." “ …

“In a telephone interview, Mr. Dershowitz confirmed that he had sent the information to "everybody who would read it." He said he had compiled the material at the request of some two dozen DePaul students, alumni, and faculty members who were alarmed at the prospect of Mr. Finkelstein's receiving tenure.”

While the tenure process in this instance was in the political science department, the issues that it has raised are of concern to all faculty members. As the Tribune article indicates, there are broader concerns for all university faculty.

“According to the norms of academia, a professor denied tenure has the right to a final year of teaching at the university that turns him down. The watchdog of those rights is the American Association of University Professors, the umbrella organization of college teachers, which can censure a school found in violation of its ground rules. Such a finding also can be the preliminary to a lawsuit against the university by the faculty member.

According to Jonathan Knight, director of the AAUP's program in academic freedom and tenure, a university owes a faculty member denied tenure more than just a year's salary. He or she has the right to a classroom (and presumably an office). A university can't simply buy him or her out by invoking administrative leave, Knight said.

He added that a faculty member can't be put on administrative leave without a hearing except in an extreme emergency.

"We're not aware of an emergency requiring DePaul to take such action at the 11th hour and 59th minute," Knight said.

Related document :

Illinois Conference of the American Association of University Professors  Letter to  DePaul re. Dr. Finkelstein  and Dr. Larudee Tenure cases June 22, 2007

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Addendum:

This past Sunday's Chicago Tribune had a follow-up, front-page story by the same author, relating that newly obtained university memos indicate that the leave imposed by the university was based on Professor Finkelstein's recent behavior and that it was not related to the controversial tenure decison. For full text of story see:         

DePaul memos tell of run-ins with professor
By Ron Grossman, Tribune staff reporter
September 3, 2007

Comments

[John K. Wilson]

My blog links to documents indicating that DePaul is violating its own rules in this case. It would be interesting to have an expert on contracts advise DePaul's administration about its legal liability.

[John K. Wilson]

My blog links to documents indicating that DePaul is violating its own rules in this case. It would be interesting to have an expert on contracts advise DePaul's administration about its legal liability.

[Arthur Hollinger]

Let us hope that academic standards at the school of law are better than what is being indicated by this ridiculous blog.

First of all Larudee was not "targeted" by anyone and obviously was denied tenure because she has a virtually empty publication record in academic journals.

Secondly, Finkelstein was indeed (deservedly) trageted by those who hated his bigotry and nastiness, he was also denied tenure because he has zero publications in academic journals (not because of "collegiality" - an added minor point against him). Finkelstein's career has consisted entirely of turning out anti-Jewish propaganda "books," bereft of serious scholarship, filled with errors and open bias. Granting him tenure would be like granting it to his mentor David Irving.

So many lies are being tossed about by the movement to award tenure to anti-Semitic non-scholars!

[Randall Thompson]

Two things:

First, DePaul Law Faculty DID have a role in the Finkelstein tenure process. The University Board on Faculty Promotion and Tenure has representation from all of the University's colleges--including the college of law.

This was the ONLY faculty committee that voted against Finkelstein and the vote was 4-3. The votes of specific committee members are not known, but certainly a Law School representative was voting.

Second, contra the comment by Hollinger, there is no evidence to suggest that Finkelstein was "denied tenure because he has zero publications in academic journals (not because of "collegiality" - an added minor point against him)."

According to the final report of the University Board--the one that voted against him: "The [UBPT] acknowledges Professor Finkelstein's record of accomplishment. By all accounts he is an excellent teacher, popular with his students and effective in the classroom. He is a nationally known scholar and public intellectual, considered provocative, and intellectually interesting."

In the rest of Hotschneider's letter, he cites "unprofessional attacks" that "polarize" and defy "the most basic standards governing scholarly discourse" as reasons to deny him tenure.

In sum, it is the tone--not the substance--that the University committee and Holtschneider cited as reasons to deny Finkelstein tenure.

Hollinger's claim that Finkelstein "has zero publications in academic journals" was not even mentioned in Holtschneider's letter.

[Arthur Hollinger]

Perhaps Holtschneider did not mention it in his letter, for reasons of his own, but it is nevertheless true that Finkelstein has no academic publications at all. At any serious institution of higher learning there is no better reason for denying tenure.

Finkelstein has been declared to be a Holocaust Denier by the ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Finkelstein readily admits he admires David irving. Granting him tenure owuld make a mockery of DePaul's reputation and standing.

[Randall Thompson]

"Perhaps Holtschneider did not mention it in his letter, for reasons of his own, but it is nevertheless true that Finkelstein has no academic publications at all. At any serious institution of higher learning there is no better reason for denying tenure."

Actually, finding problems with Finkelstein's publication record would have been an easier "out" for Holtschneider.

I think the fact that the majority of Finkelstein's departmental colleagues as well as those who comprised the committee at the college level, and the report from the university committee had no problem with where he was publishing suggests that it wasn't an issue.

"Finkelstein has been declared to be a Holocaust Denier by the ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Finkelstein readily admits he admires David irving."

The ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center are advocacy organizations, so I am not sure why their opinions matter in a tenure case.

[Arthur Hollinger]

Finkelstein is not a one-man advocacy organization instead of a scholar?
Come on.

Should David Irving's intellectual dishonesty be ignored and HE be offered tenure someplace? How about David Duke?
Remember Leonard Jeffries?

[Waltguy]

In response to Randall Thompson - Yes, I forgot about the possible participation of a law faculty member on that committee.

[Upanishad]

Some of the comments by others about the lack of publication record of Finkelstein and Larudee is ludicrous bordering on harebrained stupidity. I myself have seen a number of publications of Ms Larudee. People who talk without thinking or the ability to understand plain english seem to write here or perhaps they belong to this or that hate filled lobby.

Idiots here may talk what they want, but
the fact remains: Finkelstein is one of the foremost holocaust scholars, anointed so by the father of holocaust studies, Raul Hilberg. He is the world expert on middle east and acknowledged as one the greatest minds. The torture loving hack and "needle in the nails" professor whose name I do not want to utter from some ivy league school is an intellectual dwarf compared with Finkelstein. So those detractors of Finkelstein, please take a hike!

[Upanishad]

Some of the comments by others about the lack of publication record of Finkelstein and Larudee is ludicrous bordering on harebrained stupidity. I myself have seen a number of publications of Ms Larudee. People who talk without thinking or the ability to understand plain english seem to write here or perhaps they belong to this or that hate filled lobby.

Idiots here may talk what they want, but
the fact remains: Finkelstein is one of the foremost holocaust scholars, anointed so by the father of holocaust studies, Raul Hilberg. He is the world expert on middle east and acknowledged as one the greatest minds. The torture loving hack and "needle in the nails" professor whose name I do not want to utter from some ivy league school is an intellectual dwarf compared with Finkelstein. So those detractors of Finkelstein, please take a hike!

[Pat Hearer]

First, popular magazine articles and articles in Marxist magazines and journals do not count as academic publication (Larudee).

Second, Finkelstein is NOT one of the foremost holocaust scholars and is not a scholar at all. A real scholar, Prof. Omer Bartov from Brown, compares Finkelstein's "books" to Protocols of the Elders of Zion and dismisses them as fraud. They are filth published by publishing houses making their calls on commercial potentrial.

Raul Hilberg is NOT the "father of holocaust studies," is widely dismissed as a nut by most serious Holocaust scholars, and was evidently senile in his last years, willing to endorse the worse anti-Semites if they were "enemies of his arch enemy", historian Daniel Goldhagen.

Finkelstein would have been fired even if Dershowitz had never expressed an opinion - probably more easily so.

And then there is the little matter of Finkelstein trying to punch out Dean Suchar after the vote!

France fired Robert Faurrisson - and DePaul did the right thing by canning Finkelstein. His infantile behavior since the vote proves DePaul was right in doing so and wrong in hiring him in the first place.

And I think you owe Dershowitz an apology for running the ravings of Upanishad against him.

[Victor]

Mr Hearer, Dr. Larudee has not just been published in popular magazines and Marxist journals. She has been published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy, Review of Radical Political Economics, Journal of Economic Issues, Gender and Development. Some may be more than progressive for your taste, but they are peer-reviewed journals by scholars in her field. She is an excellent scientist and a very effective instructor, please don't denigrate her with false accusations.

I guess all scholars have "perspectives." The fact remains that both Larudee and Finkelstein are scholars with publications that are peer reviewed. Finkelstein has publications from both the University of Minnesota and University of California Presses. It is just like, in the law field, John Yoo vs. Harold Koh. They are both nationally recognized lawyers and scholars, but hold opposite viewpoints.

What has happened at DePaul is a suppression of academic freedom. Finkelstein has published books that are accepted by his peers as legitimate. His peers being both scholars in his field that reviewed his books, and his Department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Under pressure from the outside, the upper levels of the university denied him. As for Larudee, she was unanimously approved on all levels, even by the Dean of LA&S, but again, denied on the top levels. Her denial letter is so ambiguous, who knows for sure why she was denied? All we know is she sat on a committee supporting Finkelstein when Dershowitz was sending letters and dossiers to the entire law faculty and political science depts. I have spoken to a few junior faculty and they are really freaked! Some have even mentioned that they have withdrawn pending publications that could be construed as "controversial."

I am a student at DePaul and I have been involved with the student-led movement to work for justice in this matter. A lot of people have emailed and called us stupid, someone even said they hoped we would starve to death during our hunger fast this summer. We are undeterred. I hope the readers of this blog will seek to find out more about what is going on, to study the scholarship of Finkelstein and Larudee and decided for themselves.

Us students have organized a student org called the DePaul Academic Freedom Committee. We have a website, check it out: http://www.academicfreedomchicago.org .

On Oct 12 we will be hosting a conference called In Defense of Academic Freedom, featuring Tariq Ali, Akeel Bilgrami, Noam Chomsky, Neve Gordon, Tony Judt and John Mearsheimer. I hope you will all be able to attend (it is free)! Take a look at our website for more info. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks for your time.

Victor

PS - I am a regular reader of the DePaul Law Library blog, keep up the great work!

[Pat Hearer]

Well now we have a student's opinion of what constitutes academic publication. It also happens to be wrong. The fact that a journal pretends to have peer review does not make it an academic research journal. For example, Review of Radical Political Economics is a Marxist propaganda journal - not recognized as bona fide anywhere but maybe at Amherst. Some of the other journals Victor the student lists are shallow advocacy magazines, not research journals. A single paper in Cambridge Journal of Economics would not get Larudee tenure anywhere.
The Academic Freedom Chicago group rallying for Finkelstein is not interested in academic freedom but rather in promoting tenure for anti-Semitic propagandists with no serious academic credentials and most of the speakers at the event are indeed anti-Semitic propagandists with no serious academic credentials - including Tony Judt and Neve Gordon. The latter was dismissed as a Neo-Nazi by the Jerusalem Post. Tariq Ali is an Islamist quasi-terrorist and is certainly no scholar. And Mearsheimer is little better than a blood libeler. No wonder they rally to support Finkelstein!

[Jeremy]

Are none of the apologists for Finkelstein at all bothered by the fact that he is essentially a Neo-Nazi and an anti-Semite?

Would any of them be supporting a pro-Israel professor at DePaul who had been turned down for tenure?

[Victor]

Thanks for all your comments. I've learned a lot from you all. Please keep it up! Despite what you say to us on this blog, I hope you will come meet us and discuss it in person. I like to talk, and the internet is not my preferred form of communication. I am not a anti-zionist, nor do I take a position on the Israel Palestine conflict. It is you that have labeled us as such.

Please email me and I can arrange a time for us to get a cup of coffee, or if you prefer, you can meet our whole group and teach us. I would very much like the opportunity! Thanks!

[Upanishad]

This Pat Hearer owes an apology to Prof Larudee for deliberately misrepresenting her publication record. This is downright laughable. He seems a stranger to academics and academic debate; some responsible people need to assure him that ranting and raving here and misrepresenting records of a professor is not considered decent in academics. Take your hate elsewhere. Finkelstein is a GREAT scholar. The dean of holocaust studies is not the ideological omar betrov but RAUL HILBERG. Considered so unanimously and he thinks FINKELSTEIN is GREAT. Who are you and I to question the gospel of Hilberg?
Also, some hate spweing people here may not be aware, Finkelstein is JEWISH and is a child of holocaust survivors..it is not good to go on an anti-semitic ramphage targeting him. Anti-semitism is DISGUSTING!

[T. Beckett]

This is the interview in salon.com with Prof Dershowitz. By the way, Goldhagen is considered a joke among holocaust scholars and his theory has been demolished and the pages on which his theory has been written can surely find its use to fill up popcorn...

In dershowitz's own words:

From http://archive.salon.com/books/int/2002/09/12/dershowitz/index3.html

Any reason why you use needles under the fingernails as your torture method of choice?

Professor Alan Dershowitz: A reviewer criticized me for that. I purposely wanted to do that. I don't want to be vague. I wanted to come up with a tactic that can't possibly cause permanent physical harm but is excruciatingly painful. I agree with the reviewer; he's right when he said, "different strokes for different folks." For different people, different kinds of nonlethal torture might be more effective. Obviously, to the experts, having seen the movie "Marathon Man," drilling the tooth might be better than some. But the point I wanted to make is that torture is not being used as a way of producing death. It's been used as a way of simply causing excruciating pain.

Aren't there other forms of torture that would be less painful than that, that you might have considered?

Professor Alan Dershowitz: But I want more painful. I want maximal pain, minimum lethality. You don't want it to be permanent, you don't want someone to be walking with a limp, but you want to cause the most excruciating, intense, immediate pain. Now, I didn't want to write about testicles, but that's what a lot of people use. I also wanted to be explicit because I didn't want to be squeamish about it. People have asked me whether I would do the torturing and my answer is, yes, I would if I thought it could save a city from being blown up.

[farhi]

Upanishad: Your swastika is showing!

As for the fact that Noam Chomsky is rushing to defend Finkelstein - let us recall that Chomsky is a Stalinist who was the de facto spokesman for the Khmer Rouge while it was committing genocide, so his shilling for Finkelstein convinces us - if anything - that DePaul was right in canning Finkelstein.

[farhi]

Just when was Finkelstein being scholarly? When he tried to punch out Dean Suchar? When he smeared and lied about Elie Wiesel? When he spoke before German neo-nazi groups? When he cheered Hezbollah terrorism? When he lied and lied and lied? When he commissioned a cartoon of Dershowitz masturbating?

[shmuel]

It would be nice if even one of the opponents of DePaul's denazification of its campus had a single word to say about the criminal firing of Thomas Klocek.

[zionist humanitarian]

I am a zionist. But this name calling here is getting out of control. hey farhi, cool it and get a cool drink. It might lower your hatred. Others please respect the opposing opinion like farhi's even though you may think it is coming from neo-nazis. Love each other. respect each other. Drink cool glass of coke.
Stop polluting this environment.

[zionist humanitarian]

hey fellows, please stop using Israel for your own narrow prejudices. It needs help not neo-nazi supporters like you. Enough trouble that it already has is compounded by people like you spewing hate on jews like Chomsky, Finkelstein, Dershowitz and others. Take your hate filled screed elsewhere. Stop calling names like Stalinist etc..for it is the name callers who practice such! Give us a break GO AWAY morons!

[shmuel]

For Zionist Humanitarian

What nice selective outrage!

Inresting that you have no problems with the seven years of name calling by little Norman being passed off now as scholarship, including when directed against Holocaust survivors, whom Finkelstein calls thiefs, cheats, extorters, hoaxsters.

Chomsky is proud to be a Stalinist and never denies he is.

As a humantitarian Zionist, how come you have no problem with Finkelstein calling all Zionists "nazis"?

[shmuel]

Meet the Finkelsteinians:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/08/in-wonderful-co.html

[zionist humanitarian]

NO using arguing with you. get lost.

[Joshua]

AS somebody above has pointed it out. WE need a recap of the charlatans who attack Finkelstein and his GREAT scholarship:

omar betrov: who on earth is he? a nonentity. A joke.

Goldhagen==his thesis busted long time ago. Great Raul Hilberg said so. SO we accept.

AS far as dershowitz-the great secular humanitarian (phew!!)-- we need to only cut and paste what someone has done above:

dershowitz and torture:

Any reason why you use needles under the fingernails as your torture method of choice?

Professor Alan Dershowitz: A reviewer criticized me for that. I purposely wanted to do that. I don't want to be vague. I wanted to come up with a tactic that can't possibly cause permanent physical harm but is excruciatingly painful. I agree with the reviewer; he's right when he said, "different strokes for different folks." For different people, different kinds of nonlethal torture might be more effective. Obviously, to the experts, having seen the movie "Marathon Man," drilling the tooth might be better than some. But the point I wanted to make is that torture is not being used as a way of producing death. It's been used as a way of simply causing excruciating pain.

Aren't there other forms of torture that would be less painful than that, that you might have considered?

Professor Alan Dershowitz: But I want more painful. I want maximal pain, minimum lethality. You don't want it to be permanent, you don't want someone to be walking with a limp, but you want to cause the most excruciating, intense, immediate pain. Now, I didn't want to write about testicles, but that's what a lot of people use. I also wanted to be explicit because I didn't want to be squeamish about it. People have asked me whether I would do the torturing and my answer is, yes, I would if I thought it could save a city from being blown up.

[shmuel]

Actually Dershowitz is a better scholar than all the faculty at DePaul put together. Gret Hilberg was not so great, esp in his later years, except in the opinion of student Joshua. A citation taken out of context by Dershowitz changes nothing.

Goldhagen is a world class historian of Germany and Finkelstein's "work" is a pathetic joke alongside Goldhagen's. Bartov is historian at Brown with reputation far greater than any single professor at DePaul. Hope that helps.

[Joshua]

Throwing Ivy league pedigree is a bad joke that people have stopped laughing a while ago. If you are a hack of the establishment then it is easy be one such prof in a ivy league pothole. Of course there are many great people there too..but none mentioned here! what a joke to bring this up? Raul Hilberg is THE DEAN of holocaust studies; it was he who made holocaust studies what it is today. These third rate charlatans with Ivy league pedigree tried to exploit it to their own mediocre ends. A person who does not understand the greatness of Hilberg is a person of immense idiocy.

[shmuel]

Student Joshua seems never to have gotten over his failure to get into an Ivy League school. As for Hilberg, he was not the dean of anything and the fact that he could not get a job in a school better than the U of Vermont is not coincidental.

[Joshua]

I am indeed from IVY LEAGUE!! Sorry to disappoint you. I am even beginning to like you...but for now drink some cold orange juice. It will cool you.

Raul Hilberg was indeed offered a job in many a distinguished place. He perhaps liked Vermont. Also, his work has been much studied in the likes of Harvard, Princeton and other "enlightened" institutions of higher learning. Many a thesis have been written on his work from these places.

I suggest you stop hating Finkelstein for the good of your soul. Is this what you were taught by your elders? Don't pile on a man who is suffering already by the great injustice done to him by DePaul. Be decent.

[raul]

"Don't pile on a man who is suffering already by the great injustice done to him by DePaul." Sorry, I save my sympathies for the countless Holocaust survivors who were victimed by the Neo-Nazi Norman Finkelstein. No pisqueak Jew-hating student singing his praises will turn Finkelstein into a scholar.

[Joshua]

I am Jewish. So cool it. Your sympathies should also extend to holocaust victims children, one of whom is called Norman Finkelstein. It is not that you have any sympathy to victims of the holocaust, you are simply a hater who wants to hate holocaust survivor's kids. Let god bless you and take your hatred away and in its place fill it with love for all beings!

[simcha]

Sorry "Joshua" no one believes you are Jewish.
Interesting how the ONLY child of Holocaust victims (assuming reports of Finkelstein's mother having been a kapo are false) "Joshua" cares about is the one person who uses his status to smear all Holocaust survivors, collaborate with Neo-Nazis, and promote terrorism against Jews.

[Joshua]

I think some of you are filled with deep hatred in your soul. Move away from your darkness before it consumes you. Stop feeling this kind of hatred to fellow beings with whom you seem to disagree. Also, stop calling people names. Is it that you all are anti-semitic and want to cover it up by not having true well being of Israel? Is it that you are on a anti-semitic ramphage against a holocaust survivor's son?
Be decent. Stop hating. LOve fellow beings if you can, if this too tall an order for you, try to tolerate other opinions. To call names is easy!

And finally one of dirty someone here: HOW DARE YOU CALL A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR A KAPO. You are a disgrace and shows your deep anti-semitism..

[simcha]

Finkelstein is not a Holocaust survivor, but he is a Holocaust trivializer and most people regard him to be a Holocaust Denier. In any case he is a Neo-Nazi and a pro-terrorist bigot. If you are so alarmed by name calling, start fixing it at the source with Finkelstein himself, the worst smearmonger in North America.

[Joshua]

IT is a disgrace that a HOLOCAUST survivor's son is being hounded in this anti-semitic rant. It is a TOTAL PATHETIC DISGRACE that someone here is libeling a HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR (and a woman that too) as a Kapo. This seems to come from sources close to KKK. Rascist and bigot and anti-semites have no place in this dialogue. It is sad sad sad day when well fed hate filled ranting thugs come here and call a HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR as Kapo. This is a slimy pathetic disgraceful charge. People filled with such intense hate should get psychiatric treatment!!

[Buddha]

Everybody cool it please. Joshua, you are upset at a holocaust survivor being called a kapo, this is understandable. But please everyone have some sense of sanity. It is indeed unfortunate that academic freedom is under serious threat due to DePaul decision, which seems to be clearly influenced by outside elements.
But let GOD give peace to all of you!

[tutikamen]

The manipulated article in the Chicago Tribune by Robert Grossman today is one sided and represents a below the belt PR attack by the DePaul administrators on Prof. Finkelstein. It is disturbing for various reasons:

(1)The contents of the quote by a certain math professor (who says math profs are boring and benign)says that certain administration memos not favorable to prof. Finkelstein are widely circulated; this is blatant falsehood. There are many DePaul faculty who are totally unaware of this. In fact many DePaul faculty believe that this was selectively leaked by the administration to only its selected faculty cronies and not the rest.

(2) the alleged "fact" that Prof Finkelstein's support among DePaul faculty is waning as indicated in the article is a lie. First has this Grossman taken a poll? What is he comparing his numbers with? Did he know how many faculty supported before the alleged incidents and after the leaking of memos? Such a study not having taken place, how does this CT reporter know? Obviously he has gotten it as a rumor by some professor, the same boring math professor?

(3) In fact DePaul faculty supporters for Prof Finkelstein has increased, many fold. Now that the summer is over, there is going to be increased pressure on the administration.
(4) It seems likely that the DePaul administration is getting jittery by the amount of inside and outside support for Profs Larudee and Finkelstein and are now resorting to dirty campaigns.
(5) The incident between Dean and Prof Finkelstein has been misrepresented badly; it was a case of hearsay evidence at best.
It is clear from the video that it was a harmless verbal confrontation. It is now revealed that Finkelstein was asking Dean Suchar to show his "secret" evidence which Suchar is alleged to have used in the tenure decision or something like this.

(6) Why is this math professor Cohen featured in this article? He is not in any committee that decided on the Finkelstein case. Why is he suddenly making his appearance in this eposide? Who is this guy?
What is his pie in all this? Extremely weird one must say...

IMPORTANTLY:

(6) This kind of gestapo tactics by the administration of Helmut Epp and co. to destroy a single guy is indeed alarming. This is way out of proportion and way beyond what can be condoned.