Iowa Lesbian Studies Prof Tells Repubs to Eff Off

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Perham1

2,500+ Posts
Ellen Lewin was mad as hell and wasn't going to take it anymore.

A University of Iowa professor felt the need to reply to a blast email by the College Republicans on Monday morning. Ellen Lewin, a professor of Anthropology and Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies in the Department of Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies, sent a vulgar response to a College Republican email about the group’s, “Conservative Coming Out Week.”

The College Republican email, which was sent to the entire University of Iowa Community, had been approved by a number of university officials before being sent out.

Lewin responded to email by writing, “#*@% [F-Word] YOU, REPUBLICANS” from her official university email account.

I find this whole thing pretty funny.

Here is a very solid, common sense response from the faculty advisor for the junior GOPrs. With judgment like that he'll obviously never get tenure....

Professor Tim Hagel, the faculty advisor for the University of Iowa College Republicans, also interjected on behalf of the group.

The issue isn’t whether you found something in the message sent by the College Republicans to have been offensive, but how you chose to express yourself. Although some would disagree with the reasons in the message immediately below, there would have been a more appropriate way for you to have expressed yourself. Your initial apology, though qualified, was at least a step in the right direction. The “additional note” only served to retract the apology and was an apparent attempt to justify your initial response.

It’s not my place at this point to debate the merits of whether the CR message was offense, but let me remind you that they have First Amendment rights as much as you do and that their message was approved for mass distribution by the VP for Student Services, as was indicated at the bottom of the original message.

Let me also note that I found your complaint about Ms. Ginty’s use of your first name to be rather ironic. As much as I agree with you that it would have been better for her to have shown the respect for your position by referring to you as “Professor,” respect is a two way street and you clearly did not show respect for the College Republicans in your initial response.

-TH

Tim Hagle

Link
 
Lewin_Ellen.jpg
I find her to be "disturbing and offensive"
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I think this showcases three things:

1. The inflammatory and childish behavior of college political clubs.
2. A professor's short temper and poor judgment.
3. The student affairs VP's standards on what e-mails qualify for blasting to the entire university are either too lenient or biased.

#3 is the kicker. Large organizations (such as a university) should be real careful about what they allow to be sent to everyone. Do they allow every club on campus to blast stuff out about their incoming events? People would get tons of e-mail and it would eventually be deleted without being read anyway. Or is the student affairs VP biased and let this one through? Either way, it's a problem. E-mail blasts should be reserved for important announcements that clearly and explicitly affect the entire university, not the "you may or may not be interested in this but we're sending it anyway" type of e-mail like this was.

At least the professor didn't reply to all.
 
Hypersensitive.

Speaking as a gay, I find nothing offense about the email. I don't think gays have or should have a monopoly on the term "coming out." I can see how a vegetarian might have been offended by part about the animal rights BBQ, but I thought it was pretty clever.
 
Again,
this to me is in the same light of the pastor going to Dearborn. Doesn't the professor have a right to tell the College Republicans to F off?
I often thought about telling the Young Republicans to F off when I was at UT. I probably even voted pretty similarly to many of them, but the way they went about things was arrogant and absurd. Why can't a professor tell them to F off?
 
she may have the right, but the language from an academic at a place of higher learning should not be so low. its tacky and places a stain on the university. although it just adds more proof to my assertion that universities are only open and diverse as it applies to those views they deem to be acceptable. you wouldnt think that the philosophies of individualism and free markets would be so reprehensible but it guess they are.
 
Professor should know better. It is part of her job, one might argue, to help foster a mored reasoned atmosphere for dialogue.

Students are, predictably, not very thoughtful.

Censure and onward.

The CR should be able to have a coming out party. Maybe they are going to Amish-style throw up a log cabin.

Nothing wrong with an affirmative action back sale unless salmonella is in the fillings. Childish, but, again, college students.
 
I might sound very 'left' here, but why isn't the f word a legitimate form of expression and speech. It conveys that she was emotionally charged in disagreement.
I for one have used the term on occasion and find it usually clearly states my emotions and position on a matter. Does it foster reasoned dialogue? No. That is not the purpose of that word. It is a word that people should be free to use. (Esp. among adults. I can see an agrument about children being present.) It is an offensive word, but offensive speech is protected as well.
I probably don't agree with the Professor on many issues, but I stand with her in her right to drop an F bomb. It is of course much less offensive than dropping an H bomb.
 
Link no work. Without knowing what the original e-mail blast said, hard to know if she is being hypersensitive, but her response was clearly uncalled for as a university representative.

It's not a free speech issue - I guarantee you, my company would not take kindly to me sending an "F-YOU" e-mail to someone regardless of the provocation.
 
who is arguing she should not be allowed Theu? I think the argument is more along the lines of criticizing her response. That is different than saying she should not be allowed. I think freedom of speech could legitimately justify her action, but her action is no less petty and ridiculous. Frankly, I am not sure I would be excited to hire such a person if that was the level of their discourse in times of conflict, but that's another discussion I suppose.
 
THAT is what got this loony idiot prof in a tizzy so much so that she drops an F bomb? So now you can't say Come out and support your party? Get real lady and grow some thicker skin maybe.
 
There are some liberals for whom the very existence of conservatives is offensive enough to drive them over the edge and start throwing insults. So it doesn't surprise me that she would respond this way to what amounts to a reminder that the group exists.
 
hooklahoma, you make a very good point. i seriously doubt she would put up with someone saying that to her in her own class and frankly, I am sure the school administration would actually defend her position to have such a person escorted from her classroom. how is this substantially different? just because it is public so now it magically gets covered under "freedom of speech?"

excellent point hook......you may have just changed my mind.
 
hook and mop,
This is apples and oranges. A flaming email is different than disrupting a class. I just see both the medium and the relationship as being different.
I believe you can say certain things differently on email than you could in a public/private forum such as a class. Students are paying for a class and signed up which means they must want to learn about that subject. Seems a reasonable expectation anyway.
This professor seemed to have gotten this email unsolicitated, but rather because she had a university email. It was more like a spam or advertisement email, than a personal letter. The email forum was not meant to be a forum for debate or mutual learning, but rather just a place where she spouted off.
As to her doing it as a professor, I don't know that she did. If she said that directly to a student challenging her in class that would be different. Entirely different.
I just see them as very different.
 
Theu

I chose my words carefully. The aforementioned frat boys were being called on, and then said the offensive phrase. She wasnt being shouted down in typical leftist fashion. This is not a disruption unless you count the predictable overreaction by the other members of the class.

There would be no problem with what she said if it were in the Iowa equivalent of the west mall, either virtual or actual. She was responding on her work email. What reasonable person would ever contemplate using an F-bomb in that situation. The 'pub email was in no way offensive except to the most hypersensitive, hypocritical drama queens in society.
 
The university president's response was appropriate, so long as there is something more substantial. One level of maturity is expected of students, a higher level should be expected and demanded of facutly. If they can't conduct a "civil discourse", then they're not qualified for the position.

And that was a pretty benign e-mail from the CR's. Being set off by that shows that she has way too much of a hair trigger.
 
The professor acted stupidly. No question. However, I'm not worried about some innocent young Republican opening her response and being offended either. I'm guessing the "reaction" was something more on the order of "Whoo Hoo -- Looks like we get to embarrass a liberal -- somebody call Fox News." I hope it's not the case any more, but students used the "F" word a lot when I was in college.
 
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