Today’s blacklisted American: Law professor fired and escorted by police off campus for being conservative
Law professor Scott Gerber
They’re coming for you next: In an ugly act of outright thuggery, Ohio Northern University (ONU) recently fired tenured law professor Scott Gerber, without any standard due process as required by its own procedures, and did so by having the campus police arrive unannouced in his classroom to escort him off campus.
As Gerber recounts, “Around 1 p.m on Friday, April 14, Ohio Northern University campus security officers entered my classroom with my students present and escorted me to the dean’s office. Armed town police followed me down the hall. My students appeared shocked and frightened. I know I was.”
Gerber was not given any concrete reasons after being told that he was being banned from campus, other than his lack of “collegiality.” He was directed to sign a separation agreement.
The reason for Gerber’s firing however appears quite obvious if you want to look. The university did not like his uncompromising and public opposition to ONU’s racist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, which focus solely on favoring minorities in hiring and admissions while working to eliminate and remove any opposition to those racist policies. As he wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal:
The same week I was led out of my classroom by police and campus security, I published an op-ed defending Justice Clarence Thomas’s right to have friends—even rich ones. The week before that, I gave a TV interview in which I criticized DEI programs that discriminate against white men in the name of “racial and social justice” and for being indifferent to the type of diversity higher education should value most: viewpoint diversity. The week prior, I published op-eds in a national newspaper and an Ohio one making the same points.
I requested during a University Council meeting earlier this semester that ONU’s DEI program address viewpoint diversity. The administration responded, brusquely, that viewpoint diversity is “not part of our diversity, belonging and inclusion plan.” [emphasis mine]
ONU has now proved its point (as indicated by the highlighted sentence) by moving brusquely to fire a law professor who might be the most respected member of its faculty but has opinions that differ from the rest of modern leftist and quite racist academia.
Despite months of legal wrangling, the university, its president Melissa J. Baumann, and Gerber’s law dean Charles Rose have all consistently refused to provide any evidence of misconduct by Gerber that justifies his firing. In fact, the university has been so thuggish about this that it didn’t even tell Gerber he would not be teaching a course in the fall that was already fully enrolled and he had been teaching for years. Instead, he found out from a student.
In the end, however, the university is the one most threatened by this action. Gerber will get another teaching job, considering his excellent reputation in the law community. He will also likely win any lawsuit he eventually files, considering how ONU so clearly violated its own hiring policies in firing him.
And finally, the bad publicity from this story can only hurt enrollment at the college. As noted at the first link above:
Unlike elite coastal schools like Penn or Stanford, ONU is a Midwestern private school of so-so reputation, not on lists of the 10 best colleges in Ohio, much less the nation. The university is located in the sleepy town of Ada, an hour’s drive from any metropolis, whose 2021 estimated population of 5,256 was lower than in 1970. Its greatest claim to fame is possibly not ONU but the fact that it is the home of the manufacturer of NFL footballs.
Professor Gerber teaches in the ONU law school. U.S. News ranks ONU in the bottom one-third of Ohio’s law schools and as 146th best in the nation (Stanford is #1, Penn #4). The program is a back-up choice for students unable to get into Ohio State, Case Western Reserve, or the University of Cincinnati. It has almost nothing to brag about.
But there is one important legal scholar on the ONU law faculty—Gerber—and he is also a fine teacher.
Without Gerber, and with its mediocre reputation now damaged even more by this firing, why would any law student, or any student in fact, want to attend this faux college? It is quite evident you will not get a good education there, and in fact you might even graduate more uninformed and more poorly trained to think critically than before you arrived.
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 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
Law professor Scott Gerber
They’re coming for you next: In an ugly act of outright thuggery, Ohio Northern University (ONU) recently fired tenured law professor Scott Gerber, without any standard due process as required by its own procedures, and did so by having the campus police arrive unannouced in his classroom to escort him off campus.
As Gerber recounts, “Around 1 p.m on Friday, April 14, Ohio Northern University campus security officers entered my classroom with my students present and escorted me to the dean’s office. Armed town police followed me down the hall. My students appeared shocked and frightened. I know I was.”
Gerber was not given any concrete reasons after being told that he was being banned from campus, other than his lack of “collegiality.” He was directed to sign a separation agreement.
The reason for Gerber’s firing however appears quite obvious if you want to look. The university did not like his uncompromising and public opposition to ONU’s racist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, which focus solely on favoring minorities in hiring and admissions while working to eliminate and remove any opposition to those racist policies. As he wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal:
The same week I was led out of my classroom by police and campus security, I published an op-ed defending Justice Clarence Thomas’s right to have friends—even rich ones. The week before that, I gave a TV interview in which I criticized DEI programs that discriminate against white men in the name of “racial and social justice” and for being indifferent to the type of diversity higher education should value most: viewpoint diversity. The week prior, I published op-eds in a national newspaper and an Ohio one making the same points.
I requested during a University Council meeting earlier this semester that ONU’s DEI program address viewpoint diversity. The administration responded, brusquely, that viewpoint diversity is “not part of our diversity, belonging and inclusion plan.” [emphasis mine]
ONU has now proved its point (as indicated by the highlighted sentence) by moving brusquely to fire a law professor who might be the most respected member of its faculty but has opinions that differ from the rest of modern leftist and quite racist academia.
Despite months of legal wrangling, the university, its president Melissa J. Baumann, and Gerber’s law dean Charles Rose have all consistently refused to provide any evidence of misconduct by Gerber that justifies his firing. In fact, the university has been so thuggish about this that it didn’t even tell Gerber he would not be teaching a course in the fall that was already fully enrolled and he had been teaching for years. Instead, he found out from a student.
In the end, however, the university is the one most threatened by this action. Gerber will get another teaching job, considering his excellent reputation in the law community. He will also likely win any lawsuit he eventually files, considering how ONU so clearly violated its own hiring policies in firing him.
And finally, the bad publicity from this story can only hurt enrollment at the college. As noted at the first link above:
Unlike elite coastal schools like Penn or Stanford, ONU is a Midwestern private school of so-so reputation, not on lists of the 10 best colleges in Ohio, much less the nation. The university is located in the sleepy town of Ada, an hour’s drive from any metropolis, whose 2021 estimated population of 5,256 was lower than in 1970. Its greatest claim to fame is possibly not ONU but the fact that it is the home of the manufacturer of NFL footballs.
Professor Gerber teaches in the ONU law school. U.S. News ranks ONU in the bottom one-third of Ohio’s law schools and as 146th best in the nation (Stanford is #1, Penn #4). The program is a back-up choice for students unable to get into Ohio State, Case Western Reserve, or the University of Cincinnati. It has almost nothing to brag about.
But there is one important legal scholar on the ONU law faculty—Gerber—and he is also a fine teacher.
Without Gerber, and with its mediocre reputation now damaged even more by this firing, why would any law student, or any student in fact, want to attend this faux college? It is quite evident you will not get a good education there, and in fact you might even graduate more uninformed and more poorly trained to think critically than before you arrived.
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 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
I hope the settlement he gets from the school is sufficiently damaging to cause bankruptcy. If so, Baumann and Rose will have to bear all the blame for bringing the school to destruction. They deserve every bit of the criticism they will receive.
Ranking 25th/25 pharmaceutical colleges…Guessin’ where their money comes from, besides enrollment…
Lawsuits are the way to get the attention of the supporters of these commie school administrators at any level of the so-called education system. Apparently, the morons in charge of the ONU debacle have not been taught anything via the lawsuit against Oberlin College, which got their butts handed to them recently.
The staff of ONU had better consider where they are going to occupy space next, cuz they may be the next folks to join the unemployment lines. Which is what they deserve for being morons. My apologies to morons everywhere. Other than at ONU.
If anyone would like to help Prof. Gerber in his legal battle with ONU, please see the below GoFundMe link. Thanks. https://gofund.me/f64320f6
He was directed to sign a separation agreement.
But, did he? If he did, then I doubt he has a case. (I don’t think he did, but I can’t tell from the quoted article.)
The administration responded, brusquely, that viewpoint diversity is “not part of our diversity, belonging and inclusion plan.
This is why I keep banging on about Progressivism (of which DIE is a cult, in the nice-not-creepy sense*) being a religion. The requirement to do DIE is to uphold certain doctrines within Progressivism. It’s a statement of faith, same as requiring a professor to uphold the Book Of Concord as the proper exposition of Scripture at a Lutheran school. Despite worshipping Reason, this is why you can’t simply argue a Progressive out of their beliefs – they are beliefs.
why would any law student… want to attend this faux college?
I would love to see students file a lawsuit over this. After all, they might have signed up for this college (as opposed to other mediocre institutions) because they have at least one good professor, and now they’ve wrongfully thrown that away. Breach of duty? Breach of contract? Warranty of merchandisibility?
(* “Cult” has a couple of meanings, one derived from the other. The older meaning is merely a sub-group of a religion, where they focus on one or two doctrines and sometimes go beyond orthodoxy in their beliefs in those areas. Worship of individual deities within the Greco-Roman pantheon were often labeled “cults.” There is/was a “cult of Mary” within the Roman Catholic church. Some of the monastic orders could be described as “cults.”
The second meaning is of not just a group focused on a doctrine/deity, but often focused on a person, placing them nearly equal to, or even over, the gods of the religion, itself. It often assigns to that person the ability to make doctrine, even to the overthrow of established doctrine. Example: Jim Jones.
A third is where it’s simply a label applied to people who believe really crazy things. Ex: Heaven’s Gate.)
Oh, and thank you, Mr Zimmerman, for continuing to bring this stuff to light in a central location.
Why does anybody to the right of Bernie Sanders use Gofundme these days? They’ve proven again and again and again that they will close your fund and freeze the money if they don’t agree with your political orientation. Your donors may get it back weeks or months later, but in the meantime, your efforts are disrupted, and people may have exhausted the funds they have available to donate to your cause.
“If he did, then I doubt he has a case.”
Tell me, GWB, are agreements compelled by threat of deadly force from armed officers of the state valid?
Related, everything is related in existential political warfare:
NOT YOUR FATHERS LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARTY
“This is New York City mayor Eric Adams plainly stating that the illegal immigration invasion totally and entirely contrived and executed by the radical Democrat party machine that emanates from Washington D.C. will destroy New York City.”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/not-your-fathers-liberal-democrat-party-this-will-destroy-new-york-city
SDN
September 9, 2023 at 8:55 am
Tell me, GWB, are agreements compelled by threat of deadly force from armed officers of the state valid?
The question is whether there was any realistic threat of deadly force. C’mon, do you really think the cops would have SHOT him for refusing to sign? No, they would have escorted him off the premises (as they were doing, evidently, anyway).
We may yet come to that day, when they would do that. But it isn’t today, and no jury would believe the action was coerced by that. They might believe the statement was coerced via other means. But, that sets you up to have to convince a jury of that. Which puts you back at what I was getting at: if you signed it, you gave them evidence that you were NOT coerced and now the jury can ponder that and decide that all of your caterwauling was just after the fact because you didn’t like being fired.
Persuasion in a court case like this has to account for emotional appeals and “Oh, c’mon now!” sorts of arguments.
GWB: You are most welcome.
Another questionable decision from a woman due to a male influence.
Why oh Why do these people who have been wronged use Go Fund Me for fund raising??
Time and again, Go Fund Me has cancelled fund raisers for those “not observing our community guidelines: and then slow walked the return of donations to the donors.
There are other funding sites available. Give Send Go (which also allows prayer donations) is one that has been much better for conservative causes. More “conservative safe” sites are emerging in response to Go Fund Me’s shaft of Canadian Freedom Truckers.
“He was a tenured law professor” I think he knew his rights, and avenues in which to proceed. If he was under duress, I’m sure someone pulled out their phone and recorded it. Religious zealots seldom act rationally, especially when you you blasphemy their God and question their core beliefs… even if it’s against the law!
Remember this is Ohio where pictures of hockey sticks become climate change out of control, and coaches can shower with a little boys for years.
Related: Law professors, one subjective and one Objective.
EVERY SINGLE ELECTION IS AN ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT
“Overturning the government is exactly what every single election is all about, no?
And that being said and recognized, what exactly is political speech that people use in order to do exactly that, overturn the government?”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/every-single-election-is-an-attept-to-overturn-the-government
Max wrote, “Remember this is Ohio where pictures of hockey sticks become climate change out of control, and coaches can shower with a little boys for years.”
Sorry, but Michael Mann of the global warming fake hockey stick graph was from Penn State, as was the football coach who abused little boys.
It is generally good practice to make sure you know what you are talking about before speaking. Or as a wise man once said, “Better to be remain silent and thought a fool, then to speak and remove all doubt.”
You’re right, I have the two confused. I was on my break at work reading through the post and I was in too much of a hurry to check, thinking I remembered the old storys correctly. I did not.
The funny part is my father placed that particular saying on the wall in front of the toilet in the home I grew up in. Forced to memorize it every time I sat down. Thank you for reminding me.
From SIGMA3iOC.com……….EVERY SINGLE ELECTION IS AN ATTEPT TO OVERTURN THE GOVERNMENT
“Remember, the Constitution structures the government, precedes it and is superior to it.
And the political battles that goes on between the different political factions in the struggle for control over the policies, laws and direction of the country via the government is a necessary evil and can become very contentious, as we can all see where all potentials exist. In the end it will be the people whether they are fully informed and able to discern what the real truth is or not that will determine the fate of the country. That is the theory of the Constitution anyway and as we can clearly see there are those who seek to gut and or destroy its core Objective theory of governance.
There are forces in the population, in politics, the media, in business and in multinational / NGO organizations today both Left and Right but mostly radical Left that seek to discard the Constitution and not just seek to control the government for four years at a time, they want permanent control. These entities both Left and Right, but mostly radical Left seek to rewrite in their Subjective terms what structures the government.
Two very different things and you must come to understand this truth. And you must reject it with extreme prejudice, or they will literally Subjectively own you and your family. You will become a Subject of their form of government. Your government today has sold you out and is attempting to deliver your country and your freedom to the entities listed above. Your good with that?”