Pushback: Professor fired for having opinions wins total victory
University of Central Florida: Hostile to free speech
Bring a gun to a knife fight: In January 2021 (in one of my first blacklist columns and just after Biden assumed power), I described how professor Charles Negy was fired from the teaching job he had had at the University of Central Florida for 22 years, merely because he had stated some obvious facts about BLM and affirmative action on his twitter feed.
The school claimed it did not fire him for these tweets (an obvious lie based on the events), but because of a supposed pattern of inappropriate classroom behavior obtained through anonymous tips, tips instigated by Negy’s tweets that by the way did not match any of the school’s previous assessments of his teaching.
Negy fought back, demanding his case be reviewed by an independent arbitrator, and has now won his case.
In the ruling on Monday, the arbitrator, Ben Falcigno, found that the university had failed to show “just cause” when it fired Dr. Negy because it had not given him a chance to change his conduct in the classroom or, alternatively, to show that he was incapable of changing his behavior.
Mr. Falcigno pointed out that Dr. Negy had received three awards for teaching productivity and excellence, and that his last five annual evaluations showed that he was “rated as overall outstanding.” He said the university had also given Dr. Negy a raise to persuade him not to leave.
“There is no evidence that U.C.F. gave him reason to believe he was anything but as highly esteemed as his evaluations and treatment, with no reason to perform differently,” Mr. Falcigno wrote, adding that management was now blaming him for “what it retroactively sees as serious misconduct.”
Negy will now be reinstated with full pay and benefits. He will also return to the classroom in the fall, though he fully expects (as should we all) that he will be faced with mob protests when he does.
“It’s not fun walking on to campus knowing that your colleagues won’t speak to you, but I don’t give a damn about them,” he said. “I’m going to do what I’m going do.”
This will be the next battle in today’s war for free speech and freedom. Negy might have won his case now, but come the fall the fight will resume, with the left’s storm-troopers better prepared. Will the university protect Negy, or permit the mob to silence him? My guess is that the administrators of the University of Central Florida will allow the mob to disrupt his classes and prevent him from teaching, then use those disruptions as a reason to try to fire him again.
If it does so, then maybe the legislature and governor of Florida should take a close look at the funding it gives to this public college, as well as any special legal privileges the government has given it.
Regardless of what happens in the fall, this victory now against censorship and blacklisting is indicative of what is coming. Over the next year more and more of the other lawsuits against the illegal blacklisting and discrimination and censorship that began following the George Floyd riots and accelerated with the election of Democrat Joe Biden are going to be won, again and again and again.
I will describe two more such victories in the next two days. Nor will these be the last.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
University of Central Florida: Hostile to free speech
Bring a gun to a knife fight: In January 2021 (in one of my first blacklist columns and just after Biden assumed power), I described how professor Charles Negy was fired from the teaching job he had had at the University of Central Florida for 22 years, merely because he had stated some obvious facts about BLM and affirmative action on his twitter feed.
The school claimed it did not fire him for these tweets (an obvious lie based on the events), but because of a supposed pattern of inappropriate classroom behavior obtained through anonymous tips, tips instigated by Negy’s tweets that by the way did not match any of the school’s previous assessments of his teaching.
Negy fought back, demanding his case be reviewed by an independent arbitrator, and has now won his case.
In the ruling on Monday, the arbitrator, Ben Falcigno, found that the university had failed to show “just cause” when it fired Dr. Negy because it had not given him a chance to change his conduct in the classroom or, alternatively, to show that he was incapable of changing his behavior.
Mr. Falcigno pointed out that Dr. Negy had received three awards for teaching productivity and excellence, and that his last five annual evaluations showed that he was “rated as overall outstanding.” He said the university had also given Dr. Negy a raise to persuade him not to leave.“There is no evidence that U.C.F. gave him reason to believe he was anything but as highly esteemed as his evaluations and treatment, with no reason to perform differently,” Mr. Falcigno wrote, adding that management was now blaming him for “what it retroactively sees as serious misconduct.”
Negy will now be reinstated with full pay and benefits. He will also return to the classroom in the fall, though he fully expects (as should we all) that he will be faced with mob protests when he does.
“It’s not fun walking on to campus knowing that your colleagues won’t speak to you, but I don’t give a damn about them,” he said. “I’m going to do what I’m going do.”
This will be the next battle in today’s war for free speech and freedom. Negy might have won his case now, but come the fall the fight will resume, with the left’s storm-troopers better prepared. Will the university protect Negy, or permit the mob to silence him? My guess is that the administrators of the University of Central Florida will allow the mob to disrupt his classes and prevent him from teaching, then use those disruptions as a reason to try to fire him again.
If it does so, then maybe the legislature and governor of Florida should take a close look at the funding it gives to this public college, as well as any special legal privileges the government has given it.
Regardless of what happens in the fall, this victory now against censorship and blacklisting is indicative of what is coming. Over the next year more and more of the other lawsuits against the illegal blacklisting and discrimination and censorship that began following the George Floyd riots and accelerated with the election of Democrat Joe Biden are going to be won, again and again and again.
I will describe two more such victories in the next two days. Nor will these be the last.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Take me down: I bring a gun to a knife fight
You think you knowin’; everything in your sight
I been bringin’ it hard circa 1776
Bring it, b^&*%, ain’t nothin’ but a re-mix.
Ugh. A NYT link?
Anyhow, good on the professor. Here’s hoping that next year’s crop of nitwits has moved on to other distractions.
I expect Gov. DeSantis will lower the booms on these fools.
Contending with these left wing nuts is the only way for freedom to reign. As in Nazi Germany, the fight was short but ultimately, the Nazi party was removed, though the support of the ideology did not disperse; only went underground.
Phill O–
You might get something out of this–>
“Your Job In Germany”
https://archive.org/details/YourJobInGermany1945
(embedded player or download)
“U.S. Army training film for U.S. soldiers embarking on occupation duty in Germany. Directed by Frank Capra and written by Dr. Seuss. It served as the basis for the Oscar-winning Warner Brothers film, “Hitler Lives.””
That sounds like the very definition of a hostile workplace environment. Employers are not allowed, by law, to allow such to exist. When it happens he should file employment law complaints, and personally sue the people involved.