I know mid-day updates aren’t really my thing, but I’ve gotten enough comments about this already, in a lot of places, that I felt I should put it here: The Huffington Post put up a story about my situation early this afternoon. It certainly took members of the administration to task for their actions, but I'm going to have to take some time to digest it. Like I said late last week, word is spreading.
I’ve linked to The Huffington Post article on the right and I encourage you to link to it and comment it as well.
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Hey Jess,
ReplyDeleteI started my own blog, to give an independent student's take on the situation. My new post is entitled Butler: The Anti-Intellectual Atmosphere. http://bit.ly/xi0zR
Keep up the good fight, buddy! I'm right there with you!
I just read about your situation after seeing the story at the Huffington Post. I have only started reading through the information in this Blog, and my FIRST IMPRESSION is that this may be a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
ReplyDeleteI am TOTALLY unfamiliar with the politics at Butler, so I will not take any position on whether Butler's Administration is corrupt. What I will say is that libel suits are OFTEN filed with the sole intention of shutting up a critic. The person or organization filing such a suit is often richer and more powerful than the person they are suing. The Plaintiff in such situations files the suit because they know the Defendant doesn't have the tens of thousands of dollars it will require to mount a legal defense, so they have to shut up instead of sticking up for their rights. This phenomenon has been thoroughly documented in SLAPPs: Getting Sued For Speaking Out by George W. Pring and Penelope Canan
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1228_reg_print.html
I will not state as a matter of fact that the Administration at Butler is corrupt. And I will not state as a matter of fact that this is a bogus lawsuit meant solely to suppress free speech. It certainly, at first blush, APPEARS to be a bogus lawsuit intended to stiffle free speech, but that is just my OPINION formed after reading possibly incomplete information.
What I will state as a general matter though is that filing a lawsuit that LOOKS like it is suppressing free speech is very often a big red flag and it is an open invitation for scrutiny by outsiders.
If Butler's Administrators are honest, if they have conducted themselves with integrity, and if they genuinely have a case against you, then they have nothing to fear from that scrutiny. If, on the other hand, they have anything to hide... if they have been engaging in shenanigans--either financial, personal, or otherwise, then I predict that they will deeply regret filing this lawsuit. I predict that they will be getting a whole lot of attention, now that this is on Huffington Post.