In case some of you missed the stories when they came out, former Hamilton College Dean Joseph Urgo imposed sanctions against history professor Robert Paquette because Paquette had the chutzpah to openly criticize the hiring practices of his own Department.
Here is ACTA describing the events.
As we understand the circumstances of this matter, the occasion for Professor Paquette’s article was the elimination of a junior faculty member named Christopher Hill, self-described as a libertarian, from consideration at the earliest stages of a tenure-track search. Although Professor Hill received the support of some 200 students for his excellence as a teacher, as well as the Sidney Wertimer Award, his candidacy was deemed unworthy of review. Robert Paquette wrote: “A majority faction, similar in composition and outlook, to the one responsible for the [College’s] abolition of the Western civilization requirement, determined, despite the dissenting voices of four senior members of the department, that Professor Hill was largely unworthy of serious consideration for the tenure-track position.” Professor Paquette was not a member of the search committee nor did he attend the meeting at which Professor Hill’s candidacy was discussed. Our understanding is that he had no access to, nor did he reveal, privileged information.
Here is a Chronicle of Higher Ed series on it. Read “An Episode at Hamilton–Part 1”, “Part II”, Part III. More to come in a future post.
So the bottom line is that Western Civilization loses, right?
How can a college called Hamilton do this? Why are their faculty so desperate?