Change.org joins Vanderbilt students petition to silence conservative professor
A petition was posted on Change.org by a group calling itself “Vanderbilt Students” that champions the allegations of a student, Nicholas Goldbach, seeking “temporary” suspension while she’s investigated for “allegations of unprofessional intimidation on social media, discriminatory practices in the classroom, and unclear representation.”
Law Prof. Carol Swain, a vocal black conservative didn’t waiver on her free speech rights and is now claiming that the student, Goldbach, violated the law by interfering in her business relationships when he attempted to get the advertisers on her website to renounce the professor.
Goldbach reached out to Swain on Facebook Nov. 7, saying he had recently seen articles she had written full of “hate speech,” according to a copy of the exchange Swain provided to The Fix.
photo Jennifer Moo via Flickr
“Being a student at Vanderbilt, I find it unacceptable that part of my tuition finds its way into your paycheck every year, when you actively use your Vanderbilt title here (Professor) to promote so many hurtful opinions on a public media page,” Goldbach wrote.
He asserted that the professor’s articles “against LGBT individuals, the Islamic and/or Muslim communities, and any other minority group, should be redacted or edited” and “are in clear violation of non-discrimination clauses at our university.”
Goldbach and his peers sent a petition to Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos demanding “your release from employment” at Vanderbilt unless she redacted her prior writing.
“I sincerely hope that you will change the way you channel your opinions in the future,” Goldbach said.
In an interview with The College Fix, the tenured professor said Vanderbilt has not supported her as she endured verbal abuse from students, is having to consider a police escort when she returns to campus in January after a sabbatical and has refuted the allegation.
The Change.org petition, which calls for mandatory “diversity training” for faculty, currently has more than 1,600 signatures and points to Swain’s op-ed as an example of her “bigotry” and “intolerance.”
Swain said on Facebook Wednesday that Goldbach had apologized to her, though the Change.org petition remains live.
“Students need to learn that as adults, they can be held accountable for the harm they do. Conservatives need to band together and take appropriate action,” Swain wrote on her site.
