Emmanuel professor fired over Virginia Tech lecture

[voivod]

Emmanuel professor fired over Virginia Tech lecture
April 23, 2007

BOSTON --An adjunct professor at Emmanuel College was fired last week following a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings that included him pointing a marker at some students and saying "pow."

Nicholas Winset, a professor of financial accounting, said the Catholic liberal arts college was stifling free discussion about a controversial topic and the move would have a "chilling effect" on open debate.

"A classroom is supposed to be a place for academic exploration," Winset told the Boston Herald.

The five-minute demonstration last Wednesday included a discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the public's "celebration of victimhood," he said.

Winset pretended to shoot some students in the class. Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho may have been stopped had another student or faculty member been armed.

Winset, 37, has posted an 18-minute video defending his actions on YouTube.com under the title "Fired Professor Speaks Out!"

Winset said administrators had asked faculty members to engage students on the issue. Instead, he got a letter Friday saying he was fired and ordering him to stay off campus.

The college said on Monday that Winset's firing "had nothing to do with academic freedom" but rather "his insensitivity toward the students who were murdered at Virginia Tech" and "his use of obscene and discriminatory language which is not tolerated from students, faculty or staff at this institution."

Winset was "disparaging the victims as rich white kids combined with an obscene epithet. He did not do this as part of an open debate with his students," the statement said.

"The last weapon in the empty arsenal of the politically correct is to call someone a bigot, and that's pretty much what they're doing here," Winset told The Boston Globe in response to Emmanuel's latest statement.

Winset said he had already informed the school that he would not return next semester because he had another job.

Still, some students questioned the college's decision. Winset said he has received supportive e-mails from seven students.

Student Junny Lee, 19, told The Boston Globe that most students did not appear to find Winset's demonstration offensive, and the administration should have interviewed students before dismissing the professor with less than two weeks left in the semester.



Professor fired from Emmanuel College in Boston for discussing anti gun control ideas and disgust with the media circus in general about Virginia Tech talks about his frustration with political correctness and prissiness in general.

[muffdiver]

Maybe I gotta read it again,but it sounds like they were debating the shootings....
I doubt he meant to disrespect the people that were killed....

[Raldo]

Unfortunately, this doesn't surprise me in this day in age.

[voivod]

Unfortunately, this doesn't surprise me in this day in age.

What? His firing, or his actions in the class?

[willy4pres]

I seen an interview yesterday of this guy. He basically stated that we shouldn't care to much about what happened in Virginia because people die all the time.

You see, this is what pisses me off about these academic types. They ACTUALLY believe their the only ones smart enough to make points like this. As if his students werent aware there is a war going on, that many more die in under developed countries every week. They know it brother, but as an educated person you must know that people tend to empathise better with people similar to themselves.

My wife is a professor at the local college here in Yuma, I unfortunately have to listen to blowhards like this all the time. It must have something to do with them constantly being surrounded by young adults more interested in meeting the opposite sex then studying for an exam. Their young not stupid, they get it better then most people expect.

Im glad he got fired. Not because his message was wrong but because he's such a conceited ass he forgot that any person murdered is tragic and worth being mourned. Just because dozens of people are killed in Somalia every week that doesn't make what happened in Virginia less tragic.

[jimmy812]

See, my problem deals more with the media. These are just the little stories trying to feed off of the big story. Just because a reporter is able to link something to VT, it's news. I can't believe that this is actually newsworthy. People get fired all the time.
And I'm not saying that anything is less tragic or more tragic than the horrible events at Virginia Tech, but the media needs to give more attention to this war in Iraq. Like Bill Maher said, "a good day in Iraq is having only 32 people die."
And the only time I see the name of a fallen soldier is if it's on the local news because he was from the same state as me. I know more about the people that were killed at VT than I do about any soldier that died protecting my freedom.