FIRE files an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold the First Amendment rights of a dog-toy maker to parody a famous whiskey brand and to adopt a test that protects free expression against overzealous trademark owners, including colleges and universities. A petition protesting the firing has now been signed by hundreds of other faculty members across the country and around the world. Baca has been on the board for13 years. Obviously, a university need not convene a unanimous jury before stopping ongoing physical violence. Linfield has pushed back on this criticism, saying it investigated the most recent complaints in question and no university policies were found to have been violated. The Zestimate for this Townhouse is $559,300, which has decreased by $54,929 in the last 30 days.The Rent Zestimate for this Townhouse is $3,499/mo, which has decreased by $247/mo in the last 30 days. We've also seen the firings of two faculty members at Collin College for criticizing their administration about their COVID-19 reopening plans, . [11] Across the country, colleges and universities have been wrestling with allegations of sexual misconduct, racial discrimination and anti-Semitism. While we have strong disagreements with much of the media (and social media) speculation, we do not believe further argument in the press are an appropriate avenue for community healing.. WiMSE Partners to Help Invisible Homeless - January 26, 2023. David Baca, longtime chair of Linfield University's Board of Trustees, said this week that he's stepping down. Linfield University is affiliated with American Baptist Churches, USA. Linfield - Nursing alumni go on to earn a starting salary of $47,300. In response, he said, Mr. Baca, the board chairman, accused me a Jewish trustee of harboring a secret agenda to grab power.. According to the summary of the independent investigation of that report, which was provided to OPB, Davis had approached the faculty member from behind, and rubbed his hands up and down the professors arms while saying he looked forward to a scheduled meeting. 21,741 followers. But rarely have the three collided at the highest levels of leadership, as they have at Linfield University, a small, historically Baptist college in Oregons wine country, which celebrated the appointment of its first Black president in 2018. No one else on the 33-member Linfield board faces an abuse complaint by a student, the boards executive committee said in a statement, also released last week. You are now subscribed to FIRE Updates. Promising to be open about budget cuts, he quoted a former professor of his who used to make the analogy, You dont send the Jews to the shower with soap, Dr. Linder said. Based on that investigation, the NAACP criticized the ADL and Oregon Board of Rabbis for calling on Davis to resign. He also insisted that the remark was part of an academic discussion and wasnt meant to be offensive. If this were to be credited, Davis Linfields president for the last three years either did not know that Linfield had guidelines for terminating tenured faculty members, believes that the university has replaced those policies, or believes that the current policies were implemented without his administrations approval. The fact that Linfield violated its own policies is so clear that President Davis can only assert that the handbook, which was revised as recently as 2020 and is almost certainly contractually binding, is woefully out of date. As more than one reporter has observed, the employee handbook, which Davis asserts is a better guide, refers readers to the very appendix in which the procedures Linfield failed to follow are set forth. College faculty overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in Baca on May 26, finding he failed to protect students after receiving a complaint in 2018 from a graduate who accused Jubb of sexually abusing her and two of her friends the prior year. Davis, meanwhile, appears astounded at the very notion of due process: As for whether there should have been a period during which Pollack-Pelzner would have had a chance to respond to the charges against him, Davis replied with an analogy. Longtime trustee David Jubb, who left the board in June 2019, is accused of sexually abusing four different students, including a student trustee last year. The governing council of a national academic association this week voted to censure Linfield University over the abrupt firing of tenured English professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, an advocate. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Pollack-Pelzner whose case has become a cause celebre among American academics did not agree to speak with the NAACP for its investigation, and the report does not substantively address his termination or his allegations, relying instead on the independent investigation that could not substantiate them. Other faculty members have since stepped forward to report an even stranger comment. And the Anti-Defamation Leagues Pacific Northwest office urged Dr. Davis to consider stepping down. The Oregon Board of Rabbis called on Dr. Davis and Mr. Baca to resign. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. If Davis believes that Linfield can prove that Pollack-Pelzner violated university policy, he should submit that question to an unbiased faculty committee, as due process requires. Resources for faculty and staff from our partners at Times Higher Education. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Fill out the form below to receive personalized communications or close this window to continue. I havent seen any indication that people in positions of power at Linfield want to hold themselves accountable., Other organizations have also come out in Pollack-Pelzners defense. Editors Note: This story has been updated to include information about investigations of sexual harassment at Linfield, based on summaries provided to OPB after the story originally published. But he pushed back hard on the allegations surfaced recently by Pollack-Pelzner. Regarding the Listservs, Linfields vice president for finance and administration wrote to faculty and staff members over the weekend to say that based on the request of many faculty we are pausing access to global and college/school emails lists due to the use of these lists to send unsolicited messages. Even mass emails about the general education revision are paused, and Linfield requests that all broad correspondence be vetted and distributed by the vice presidents office. So eight criminal charges total, not all of them felonies. Welcome to Linfield University Discover a community where acceptance is an unbreakable promise and being uncommon is the norm. Linfield stands against xenophobia, racism, antisemitism and sexual misconduct in all forms.. Mr. Bacas open letter also took aim at Dr. Pollack-Pelzner, saying it is shameful that a faculty trustee has spread misinformation about the sexual misconduct cases. Why didnt his obituaries say so? In an interview on Friday, Mr. Baca acknowledged mentioning a power grab in a long and contentious discussion but said he had not known that Dr. Pollack-Pelzner was Jewish or that the comment could be construed as anti-Semitic. Linfield University has agreed to pay just over $1 million to settle a whistleblower suit filed by tenured English professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, who accused the university of firing him. Miles K. Davis, president of Linfield University, a long-ingrained American response to look away, The fallout across industries has been swift. But affording a faculty member some kind of process before imposing any disciplinary action Davis wants? In a long March 29 Twitter thread, Pollack-Pelzner claimed that Board Chair David Baca told him that the Board never had a problem until [Pollack-Pelzner] became a trustee. He says that Linfields President, Miles K. Davis, told him that he was putting Linfield at risk by reporting claims of sexual misconduct, threatened [Pollack-Pelzner] with personal liability, and claimed that people like [Pollack-Pelzner] were destroying [Linfield] from within and could only show loyalty by accepting the teachings of Jesus Christ. Pollack-Pelzner is Jewish. Colleen Flaherty April 19, 2021 (Daniel Pollack-Pelzner/Twitter) With Linfield . According to The Oregonian, the university has hosed down sidewalk-chalk messages supporting Pelzner, threatening the students who wrote them with fines, and has torn down flyers criticizing his termination. As FIRE detailed yesterday, Linfield University's senior leadership abruptly terminated Daniel Pollack-Pelzner after he criticized the university's handling of sexual assault and harassment allegations against board members, and alleged that Linfield president Miles K. Davis had made a remark about "Jewish noses." The university exists as a powerful reminder that threats to academic freedom often come not from ideologues but from administrators who fear criticism and have no business running a university. The vote came after reports in The Oregonian/OregonLive about the 2019. of Jubb, who faces sexual abuse charges involving a student-trustee in 2019 and three students in 2017. Last month, the faculty of arts and sciences took a vote of no confidence in Dr. Davis and Mr. Baca and urged them to resign in a resolution that condemned intolerance, discrimination and retaliation. The professor said he tried notifying his bosses about sexual harassment. The most serious of the sexual misconduct allegations involved a trustee, David Jubb, who resigned in June 2019 and was charged in an indictment last May with one count of felony sexual abuse and seven counts of misdemeanor sexual abuse. Multiple organizations, including the Oregon Board of Rabbis, called for both Baca and university president Miles Davis to resign. Dr. Friedman said she had also reported that another trustee, Norman Nixon, a former member of the Los Angeles Lakers, touched her thigh during a university dinner and asked if there was a Mr. But no such corollary exists for faculty and students should not be subject to such a bizarre policy. Set aside that President Daviss false denial of his comment on Jewish noses is the only blatantly false statement one can pin down in this case. He said that as an African-American man, he understands the need for education, training and community engagement on matters of discrimination and intolerance.. Kerry Carmody, the boards vice chair, was named interim chair, effective Oct.1. Until then, the self-inflicted damage to Linfields reputation will continue to flow. One of those reports included former board member David Jubb, who was indicted last year on eight counts seven counts of third-degree sexual abuse and one count of first-degree sexual abuse. said Dr. Davis had contacted it last month with concerns about racial bias. This is purportedly an example as Linfield said in response to media inquiries of the conduct that is harmful to the university that necessitated Pollack-Pelzners immediate termination, but its not clear what the universitys interest is at all. The only major offered is Nursing. These are real issues that Linfield has to deal with, and I understand the impulse to blame the messenger and claim that the harm is in the act of reporting rather than whats being reported, but Im hopeful that if we continue to shed a light on these abuses of power that that will allow us eventually to be able to rebuild and heal, Pollack-Pelzner said. Daviss answer is wildly implausible on its face and incomprehensibly at odds with the basic conception of tenure. Davis told the Chronicle of Higher Education that the schools faculty handbook had not been updated and said a number of things in that handbook that are not valid. He added that Our legal representation feels very comfortable with the basis for his termination.. Last year, controversy broke out again after a viral column in JCU's student newspaper posited that the show represented "the deviant entertainment of misguided young people." The column prompted widespread debate about free speech and LGBTQ inclusivity on campus, as well as an administrative investigation into the author of the critical column. That failure led to sexual abuse allegations against trustee David Jubb stemming from a 2019 encounter between Jubb and a student-trustee at a bar after a faculty-trustee dinner. The Chronicle conducted interviews with Linfields dissembling leadership as they frantically grasp for any credible explanation for why they terminated a tenured faculty member with no process a severance so quick that the professor learned of his termination because he got an auto-response from his own email address explaining that Daniel Pollack-Pelzner is no longer an employee of Linfield University.. In addition, the schools president, Miles K. Davis, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he had in fact made a comment about the size of Jewish noses to Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, the professor who was fired this week. Finally, the President said that people like me were destroying [Linfield] from within and could only show loyalty by accepting the teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, Pollack-Pelzner tweeted. Do these folks really think theyre going to win a social media war against Generation Z?, Trey PetersonWood, a recent Linfield graduate, said Monday that the more Linfield attempts to censor and silence advocates for accountability, the more damage they are causing to this great institution that has the potential to be a leader in the age of what oppressors call cancel culture, but in reality, its the age of accountability.. Photo by Daniel Hurst, courtesy of Linfield College LC-LC-. In interviews this week, Dr. Davis and the board chairman, David Baca, denied any wrongdoing. Some have called for the universitys president to resign. A student walks out of the Riley Center on the campus of Linfield University in McMinnville, Ore., Tuesday, May 21, 2019. FIREs 2022 College Free Speech Rankings are based on the voices of more than 44,000 currently enrolled students at 208 colleges and are designed to help parents and prospective students choose the right school. Students as well as fellow academics are also protesting the decision by Linfield University, a Baptist-affiliated school with some 2,000 students, to fire Daniel Pollack-Pelzner. Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. But then theres also, maybe, a reaction to who is bringing the change., Dr. Davis said he was particularly stung by the claims of anti-Semitism, calling it the thing that bothers me the most. Last year, he denied making the remark about Jewish noses, and an investigator hired by the university called it a he said, he said situation that could not be substantiated. Israeli Orthodox Jew raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for victims of settler riot, Wikipedias Supreme Court tackles alleged conspiracy to distort articles on Holocaust, This Purim, a space for queer Jews to celebrate their identities and dance the night away, Avi Maoz, Israeli politician and proud homophobe, resigns from deputy minister role, As Israel reels from violent attack on Palestinians, settler leadership remains unapologetic. Dr. Pollack-Pelzner said he had taken the letter as a personal attack, adding that he had been ordered not to talk about sexual misconduct outside of executive session and had then been banned from attending the sessions and finally fired after speaking out on Twitter. Richard Belzer was a Jewish comedian. In its letter Thursday, Anti-Defamation League Pacific Northwest Regional Director Miri Cypers wrote that the ADL is not representing Pollack-Pelzner as his attorney nor is it in a position to verify his allegations, but that it is troubled by his descriptions of the incidents. Here, you'll find full details on how to place either request. Be a part of it! Earlier this week, Linfield University fired a tenured professor who had spoken out about allegations of sexual misconduct, as well as antisemitism, against university leaders. It . Now people. All rights reserved (About Us). Linfield University is a private institution that was founded in 1858. OPBs critical reporting and inspiring programs are made possible by the power of member support. If a person walks up and punches a student in the face, youre telling me I need to go convene a group of people before I take any action against them?. Jewish and Arab noses, he explained, are actually around the same size. Zestimate Home Value: $439,900. As Linfield adapts to meet the needs of a new generation of students and the demands of a quickly evolving world of higher education, the Board also has to adapt and change. About a month after his widely shared Twitter thread, Pollack-Pelzner was let go so abruptly that he learned of it only when he was locked out of Linfields email system. With its 52-23 win over Pacific University (Ore.) on Saturday, the Linfield Wildcats moved to 5-0 on the season and guaranteed themselves a 65th consecutive winning season. Pioneer Hall is seen through the signature oak trees at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., Tuesday, May 21, 2019. (Linfield students, on the other hand, are subject to the noblesse oblige and whims of Davis: The student handbook has a get-out-of-policy-free card for Davis, granting him the prerogative of total authority to act without consultation with any other person or conduct board to suspend or expel any student that Davis feels is acting contrary and dangerous to the university. The Pacific Northwest chapter of the Anti-Defamation League wrote a letter to Linfield Universitys Board of Trustees on Thursday expressing disappointment and concern over claims of antisemitism chronicled in a professors social media posts. Be a part of it! Perhaps Davis shifted to the remark about the trustee because he conceded to the Chronicle that he had, in fact, made the remark about Jewish noses that Pollack-Pelzner had alleged: A campus investigation last August into the nose comment, along with other matters, called it a he said, he said situation and stated that Davis had denied saying it. Additionally, the ADL encouraged Linfield leadership to attend trainings on bias and antisemitism. Linfield President Miles Davis said in a responding letter that the professors tweets were part of a smear campaign against university administration. The State College of Florida Bradenton requested a traveling art exhibition to remove pieces with the words diversity, inclusion, justice, and equality. Linfield President Davis responded Friday to the ADLs letter. He said that his firing sent the message that if you use your voice to speak up against sexual misconduct, then you will lose your voice.. Police, security agencies advise Jews to be on alert ahead of planned National Day of Hate on Shabbat, American citizen killed in latest West Bank shooting amid escalating violence, This Orthodox Jewish model made history at New York Fashion Week. It said that he had been called divisive, intimidating, combative, aggressive, disrespectful and abusive, which the report called coded racist language. In another incident, Dr. Friedman reported that Dr. Davis had come up from behind her after a panel discussion in 2018 and had rubbed his hands up and down her arms while whispering that he was looking forward to meeting her later, she said. Israeli Orthodox Jew raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for victims of settler riot, Wikipedias Supreme Court tackles alleged conspiracy to distort articles on Holocaust, This Purim, a space for queer Jews to celebrate their identities and dance the night away, Avi Maoz, Israeli politician and proud homophobe, resigns from deputy minister role, As Israel reels from violent attack on Palestinians, settler leadership remains unapologetic. How to request transcripts Contact us For more information on how to get involved with Linfield, please don't hesitate to reach out. 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