Open Letter to the Loyola University Academic Community
(well, at least as much of it as I can reach)
by Walter Block
by Walter Block
Recently by Walter Block: Striking Back at the Forces of Barbarism and Political Correctness
Reconciliation Committee
Timothy Cahill, Humanities & Natural Sciences
Michael Pearson, Business
Allen Nisbet, Music & Fine Arts
David Zemmels, Social Sciences
Stephen Higginson, Law
Trish Nugent, Library
Brett Matherne, Business, Alternate
Donald Hauber, Humanities & Natural Sciences, Alternate
Patrick Walsh, Social Sciences, Alternate
James Klebba, Law, Alternate
Teri Gallaway, Library, Alternate
Vicki Vega, Music & Fine Arts, Alternate
The faculty senate executive committee:
Robert S. Gerlich, S.J., Chair
Barbara Ewell, Vice Chair
Janna Saslaw, Secretary
Conrad Raabe, At-Large
Alice Clark, At-Large
COB members:
Wing Fok
Patrick Lynch
Chris Screen
Stuart Wood
Lee Yao
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Tony Dagradi, Music & Fine Arts, Alternate, Chair
Katherine Adams, Humanities & Natural Sciences
Walter Block, Business (don't ask!)
Allen Nisbet, Music & Fine Arts
David Zemmels, Social Sciences
Stephen Higginson, Law
Trish Nugent, Library
Mike Pearson, Business, Alternate
Catherine Wessinger, Humanities & Natural Sciences, Alternate
Cathy Rogers, Social Sciences, Alternate
Teri Gallaway, Library, Alternate
University Rank and Tenure Committee
the Civil Rights Grievance Committee Professor Darla Rushing is chair of the Civil Rights Grievance Committee and she can be reached at [email protected] or x5788.
Professor Cecelia Bennett, Loyola Institute for Ministry, University Ombudsman, can be reached at [email protected] or x3398
Professor Tony Dagradi is the chair of the University Conciliation Committee, [email protected] or x2144
Professor Maria Calzada is the chair of the University Rank and Tenure Committee, [email protected] or x2491
members of the Diversity Task Force:
Ted Quant (Twomey Center), Lydia Voigt (Sociology), Wing Fok (Management), Lisa Martin (Mass Communication), Alvaro Alcazar (Twomey Center), James Hobbs (University Library), Kurt Bindewald (University Ministry), Artemis Preeshl (Theater Arts and Dance), Karen Reichard (Women's Resource Center), Anthony Decuir (Music and Fine Arts)
Dear Faculty Colleagues, present and former students:
On 11/5/08 (that is no misprint), I gave a speech at our sister college, Loyola University in Maryland. I tried to explain why there is a pay gap between males and females, whites and blacks, and why there is a glass ceiling.
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The Diversity Task Force of Loyola University New Orleans publicly accused me of racism and sexism on the basis of that talk, which none of them had attended. They cited no evidence to back up their accusation, which was based on second hand newspaper reports. Indeed, one of its members (Wing Fok) went so far as to say that the burden of proof rested with me to prove that I am not a racist or sexist. I offered numerous letters from my former students, particularly black and female ones, but was never told whether this would suffice to "prove" I was not a racist or sexist. When I tried to respond to the same Loyola University New Orleans community that received this Diversity Task Force Report, the provost of our university, Ed Kvet, would not allow me to do so.
On 3/25/09 I gave roughly the same speech at Loyola University New Orleans (see here or here), and only one of the members of this Diversity Task Force had the decency to show up (Ted Quant), but based on his highly irrelevant soliloquy after my lecture, he hadn't listened to it (among other things he criticized me for supporting George Bush, a man I detest, who, in any case has nothing to do with the issue at hand).
As a result of all of this hate directed at me (I have heard that many students refuse to take my classes since I am a racist and a sexist), in January 2009 I filed a grievance against the members of the Diversity Task Force, and Provost Kvet. The first step in this procedure is to present my complaint to the Reconciliation Committee. They met in May 2009. It is now over a year after the initial brou-ha-ha took place, and some six months after the meeting of this Reconciliation Committee, and I still have not heard from any official university body or spokesman about my ill treatment and grievance against it. I feel as if my tenure as a professor at this university is being abrogated, by the failure of its grievance machinery to act in a timely manner.
So, I appeal to you, gentle colleagues. Surely, none of you would relish being treated in the manner I have been dealt with? As it happens, I am also the (co) winner of the 2007 Dux Academicus Award. Thus, the hateful manner in which my academic freedom has been abrogated is not only a slur against me, personally, and thus against all of you as my colleagues, but besmirches this award as well.
I appeal to you to use your good offices to help end this nightmare from which I have been suffering for over a year now. Loyola University New Orleans advertises itself as "Social Justice University." I fear its treatment of me, at least so far, belies this claim.
Yours truly,
Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans
6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 15, Miller Hall 318
New Orleans, LA 70118
tel: (504) 864-7934
fax: (504) 864-7970
[email protected]
November 11, 2009
Dr. Block [send him mail] is a professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans, and a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of Defending the Undefendable and Labor Economics From A Free Market Perspective. His latest book is The Privatization of Roads and Highways.
Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.