Zarko Research has received alleged copies of e-mails between Central Michigan University professors assailing the student whose YouTube posting of a videotape showing Humanities Dean Pamela Gates impacting his camera while in her office. Police reports were filed by both parties although prosecutorial action was denied in both instances, and the video made hit national news outlets.
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The e-mail exchange is posted in full below and raises questions of student privacy, student safety, and the appropriate nature of the discussion on campus about Mr. Lennox. While four separate e-mails were obtained, the final e-mail, if read from the "bottom-up" contains one entire exchange in the order of its transmission, and a second e-mail contains a second "middle response" to the initating e-mail equating Lennox to the Virginia Tech shooter.
The exchange begins with an English professor posting a reply to another e-mail we have not yet obtained on the "English Faculty Discussion Forum" listserv. Listservs are a common form of internet e-mail "group communication" that actually pre-date the World Wide Web (www) and have been a mainstay of academic communications for a considerable period of time. Posting to a listserv would enjoy a diminished expectation of privacy, and in this case could arguably be considered careless.
The first e-mail proceeds to discuss a conversation a temporary faculty member claims to have had with a CMU staff "neuro-psychologist" "about the escalation of Mr. Lennox's activities, along with with his allegedly rather strange physical transformation (his hair-style changes!) and his increasing alleged fixation on Gary Peters ...". The e-mail goes on to assert that Lennox has not only "noxious political and social beliefs" but has "mental health issues," and it relays advice the psychologist allegedly prescribed in dealing with Mr. Lennox including the university's use of a mediator and coercion to force Lennox to "back off or face scholastic or legal consequences". The initial e-mail wraps up by making a rather odd and surprising speculation that Lennox and well-known national conservative student academic rights advocate David Horowitz are linked with the Christian Right, YAF, and their "shared hatred for Muslims." These "vast right wing conspiracy" linkages seem rather unlikely and paranoid.
The e-mail is followed by another professor saying the e-mail "raises real questions" and asking the English Department Chair what "should we do". A second e-mail below the first clip contains a response from another professor equating the danger to the "Virginia Tech" shooting.
The English department chair, perhaps realizing the sensitivity of discussing this on a "listserv", calls for the discussion to be moved off the listserv and into an in-person Department meeting. What was discussed at that meeting, which occurred only this past Friday is unknown.
However, the exchange raises two questions. First, if there is a "serious belief" that Mr. Lennox is genuinely dangerous at the "Virginia Tech" shooter level, then CMU has a serious obligation to investigate that angle and protect its students. On the other hand, mere "noxious political beliefs" and speculation about one's changing hair styles, and discussion of students with "neuro-psychologists" without their permission, and in the context of their academic career, raises both FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and traditional privacy questions. Speculating that people are a physical threat and invoking the spectre of mass-murder in the context of a student's political disputes with the university, in a quasi-public forum like a listserv, also raise libel questions, retaliation questions, First Amendment questions, and the question of better judgment. Extreme care must be taken in this kind of discussion, and the raw speculative nature of this type of e-mail demonstrates the danger of university over-reaction to a student it disagrees with. The university must, as it investigates this, ensure that Lennox is not a safety threat and it must also investigate to protect Lennox from what might also be a campaign of character assassination.
Lennox is certainly a nuisance. It's easy to understand why he's disliked. He's both taken unpopular political positions and been abrasive in his advocacy style. Anyone who may happen to agree with Lennox on specific issues or about particular events should take care in that association as a result. Some of his positions, associations, or actions may even justify condemnation. On the other hand, the mere agressiveness of his advocacy or "noxiousness" of his political views does not justify the dimunition of thousands of students First Amendment rights (through non-narrowly tailored video and audio-taping bans), character assassination, or carelessly raising the spectre of physical violence. Now that this spectre has been raised, CMU must investigate both ends of this question to ensure that the fear isn't real and that its professors follow a better process of discussing their students. It must either exonerate Lennox and condemn such destructive speculation by its faculty, or it must find him to be a real threat and take the necessary action that implies.
"Taylor, Marcia Mary" wrote: Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:54:40 -0400 From: "Taylor, Marcia Mary" Subject: Re: In Case You Wish to Reconsider To: ENGFAC@LISTSERV.CMICH.EDU I would like to raise these questions at the Department meeting today, which I think is a better forum than the listserv. So please try to make the meeting—at the least, we need to decompress after two weeks of rather heightened tension and, I think, review some principles for our safety and for the free exchange of ideas.
Marcy _____________________________________________ Marcy M. Taylor Chair, Department of English Language and Literature Co-Editor of Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture Central Michigan University Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859 989-774-3171 marcy.taylor AT cmich.edu _____________________________________________
From: English Faculty Discussion Forum [(rmodified to prevent hotlink) ENGFAC AT LISTSERV.CMICH.EDU] On Behalf Of Weinstock, Jeffrey A Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 8:55 AM To: ENGFAC AT LISTSERV.CMICH.EDU Subject: Re: In Case You Wish to Reconsider
This information raises real questions. Marcy, what, if anything, should we do?
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English Central Michigan University 100 W. Preston Road Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859-0001 Office: (989) 774-3101 Email: Jeffrey.Weinstock AT cmich.edu "I was a teenage werewolf ... and no one even said thanks!" --Lux Interior ________________________________________ From: English Faculty Discussion Forum [(modifed):ENGFAC AT LISTSERV.CMICH.EDU] On Behalf Of Allegra Blake Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 6:53 PM To: ENGFAC AT LISTSERV.CMICH.EDU Subject: Re: In Case You Wish to Reconsider
I talked to a behavioral neuro-psychologist about the escalation of Mr. Lennox's activities, along with with his rather strange physical transformation (his hair) and his increasing fixation on Gary Peters (see his day-by-day blog on Gary @ petersreport dot blogspot dot com), and the humanities in general. He has grown from super pest to scary pest in the past year--really, since he was kicked out of the College Republicans. I used to work in mental health, and quite frankly the pattern of behavior we've been witnessing is disturbing and indicates that Mr. Lennox is not only someone with noxious political and social beliefs, but someone who has mental health issues, and someone who seems to be losing control. The psychologist's advice (he has been following some of this on the news)is the following: "Don't provoke him. Don't initiate a confrontation of any sort, be it email, letter, or a face-to-face. He will respond in kind and escalate. Do not respond to correspondence, taunts, or 'stalking behavior' other than by calling the police. Appoint a mediator, if possible, from the counseling center [a neutral party], to try to convince him to either get help, back off or face scholastic or legal consequences." The psychologist went on to say that he thought that Lennox was a ticking bomb of sorts: he's angry [a little ball of hate, really], he's been rejected by other conservatives, and he has fixated on certain groups of people as the ultimate cause of his unhappiness. I know we are all furious with Lennox, and despise what he represents—let's face it, a movement that loathes academe and all it stands for. But I do think the above advice is solid and worth considering. Oh, and Horowitz has had connections with the Christian Right and the YAF because of their shared hatred for Muslims. It's a weird partnership, but one that has been flourishing for at least 10 years (Frontline did something on it a few years ago).
This response to the Allegra Blake discussion of her conversation with a neuro-psychologist was part of a "separate chain", but it raises the obvious question equating Lennox to the "Virginia Tech" shooter:
"Hicks, Catherine" wrote: Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:22:07 -0400 From: "Hicks, Catherine" Subject: Re: In Case You Wish to Reconsider To: ENGFAC AT LISTSERV.CMICH.EDU
So are you saying that this kid is dangerous? As in Virginia Tech dangerous? Let's not ignore the warning signs...
Cathy Hicks Kennard, Ph.D. Asst. Professor of English Central Michigan University Anspach 206 Mount Pleasant, MI 48858 989.774.3371 hicks1c AT cmich.edu
Ed note: Italics are modifications to prevent embedded e-mails and hotlinks.
